Sead Žilo and his company Windsor Group from Zavidovići will stand criminal trial before the Zavidovići Municipal Court for business fraud during the coronavirus pandemic from March 2020.
Zenica-Doboj Canton Prosecutor’s Office filed an indictment in March 2022.
CIN reported on this case earlier. According to the indictment, Žilo deceived Emir Begović, the owner of the Gračanica-based Global Promet company, by offering him surgical face masks cheaply even though he did not have any nor could he produce them because he was not registered as a manufacturer of medical devices and does not have the necessary equipment. Nevertheless, he offered Begović 70,000 boxes of masks for BAM 4.61 per box. He issued him a proforma invoice and a falsified certificate of conformity of the goods with the EU requirements.
Based on the agreement and the provided proforma invoice, Begović made a down payment of BAM 10,000 to the account of Žilo’s company and then arranged to resell these masks to the owner of Slovenian company Labena, Borut Čeh, for six times the price. Under this arrangement, Čeh made a down payment of BAM 600.000 to Begović. However, the masks were never delivered.
The public learned about this case from Slovenian authorities since the masks were intended for their health institutions. Initially, the BiH Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation into this case and filed an indictment against Begović and Žilo for money laundering and business fraud. However, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina rejected the indictment against Begović explaining that no evidence suggested that he committed the crimes charged against him. The part of the indictment charging Žilo with business fraud was referred to the Zavidovići Municipal Court.
This is one of a total of four criminal proceedings that are currently being conducted against Sead Žilo for business fraud. Another court case is being conducted against him at the Municipal Court in Zavidovići, and two more at the Municipal Court in Tuzla.
Žilo and his wife Lidija Boros are accused of defrauding several individuals and legal entities from different cities in BiH for about BAM 200,000 from 2018 to 2020. Among them are Naim Hamzabegović from Cazin and Aleksandar Denda from Bileća, on which CIN reported earlier.
Through his company Windsor Group from Zavidovići and IRA from Tuzla, Žilo offered various CNC machines, chandelier crystals, cars, TV sets, and transportation services. He negotiated deals directly or via the Internet, sending customers photos of the offered goods or proforma invoices. He kept the down payments but in most cases, he did not deliver the ordered goods.
Also, he has a criminal record history of evasion, endangering security, and fraud. He is currently serving a one-year prison sentence in the Tuzla Penitentiary for business fraud.
From this prison, he wrote to CIN stating that the CIN’s reports from December 2022 caused him emotional distress for which he expects to be indemnified. He left it to the CIN management to assess the amount of indemnification, otherwise, as he said, he would turn to criminal and civil courts.
