Producer and singer Almir Ajanović, known by the stage name Don Almir, made it easier for his colleagues in the entertainment industry to collect performance royalties by founding the Association of Performers and Musicians (AIS) in 2014. Musicians entrusted AIS with the responsibility of collecting royalties, commonly referred to as performance fees, from broadcasters in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) on their behalf.
The management of the Association was obligated to distribute the collected funds to all performers based on how often their works were broadcast on radio and TV stations or played in cafés, hotels, and other venues. However, things did not go as expected.
While broadcasters paid royalties to AIS, the payments to performers continued to decrease. Between 2015 and 2022, AIS collected nearly seven million BAM but only distributed 2.7 million BAM to the performers. Journalists from the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIN) have uncovered that Ajanović, who was also the President of the AIS Management Board, misappropriated at least 373,000 BAM intended for performance royalties.
He did this by contracting work through his company ViatorTel, and friends in Sweden who managed the data on music broadcasts, thereby determining how much money would be distributed to each performer. To increase his earnings, he regularly played his own songs on his television station for more than half of the day throughout the year. This made him the second highest-paid performer in Bosnia and Herzegovina, ahead of music stars like Dino Merlin, Halid Bešlić, and Goran Bregović.
He used the money collected from broadcasters for unauthorised trips and unlawfully received both a salary and additional fees simultaneously. For years, he also concealed the fact that he was the owner of the commercial property for which AIS was paying monthly rent.
“My goal was to bring together established performers from Bosnia and Herzegovina and enable them to efficiently exercise their rights”, Ajanović replied via email. He declined to speak on camera for CIN, although during a lengthy conversation with reporters at a café in Sarajevo, he complained about events within AIS and denied any responsibility.
Seven of his colleagues from the AIS leadership told CIN that he had restricted their access to the organisation’s financial documents, thus preventing them from overseeing his actions.
“Unfortunately, I turned out to be a fool, so to speak, because I was used as cover”, said Slaviša Guja, vice president of the AIS Management Board, who also claimed that his signature had been forged to secure contracts with Ajanović’s company.
From hope to despair
By performing music, artists make a unique artistic contribution, whether through singing or playing musical works. As such, their performances are considered intellectual property, protected under Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Copyright and Related Rights Act. These rights allow musicians to earn income, or so-called royalties, from their performances when publicly used by others to generate revenue. These include radio and TV stations, hospitality businesses, hotels, property owners, and concert organisers.
However, with music being easily accessible to everyone and everywhere today, musicians no longer have control over the broadcasting of their works. Therefore, they have entrusted licensed organisations to collect royalties on their behalf.
For the past decade, their rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina have been protected by the Association of Performers and Musicians (AIS), which operates under a license from the Intellectual Property Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Founded in 2014 by producer and musician Almir Ajanović, the association was established with the goal of creating a secure system for collecting performers’ rights in Bosnia, inspired by models from more developed countries like Sweden, where Ajanović has lived since the 1990s. Besides this Scandinavian country, Ajanović also built his music career in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he was known in the 2000s by his stage name, Don Almir.
His colleagues trusted him, and over a thousand performers registered their songs and performances with AIS. AIS is responsible for distributing the collected funds to the performers on an annual basis. The largest share (60%) goes to the singers, while the remaining funds are divided among the musicians.
“This is an association that brings together the rights holders—namely, the performers of musical works. The goal is to make it easier for them to exercise their property rights over their performances”, explained Tatjana Vitomir, head of the Copyright and Related Rights Department at the Institute for Intellectual Property of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
However, AIS was not up to the task of protecting performers’ rights, as it lacked a developed system for tracking music broadcasts and calculating royalties, while broadcasters were avoiding payment of fees. Facing these challenges, AIS management took matters into their own hands starting in 2014, personally visiting cafés and other establishments to remind them of their legal obligation to pay for music usage.
“I travelled across Republika Srpska, explaining to people. I was explaining that if they didn’t pay their electricity bill, their power would be cut off. Similarly, if they didn’t pay for music, they wouldn’t be allowed to play it”, said Guja.
Despite lengthy and complex negotiations, AIS successfully signed collective agreements in 2015 and 2016 with public broadcasters, cable operators, and hospitality businesses, including restaurants and hotels. As per these agreements, they are obligated to pay AIS monthly fees ranging from five (5) BAM to several thousand BAM.
The amount of the fee depends on the revenue generated by radio or TV stations from advertising and music broadcasting, as well as the size and location of cafés, hotels, and other business premises. Public broadcasters such as Radio and Television of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BHRT), Radio and Television of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FTV), and Radio Television of the Republika Srpska (RTRS) are required to pay the highest monthly fees, ranging from 1,000 to 2,300 BAM. The highest fees among private businesses are paid by retail chains like Bingo, which annually contribute up to 30,000 BAM to AIS.
Soon after, money began to flow into the Association’s account, and within two years, it collected nearly half a million BAM. However, performers didn’t receive a penny of that amount. It wasn’t until 2017 that they were paid around 260,000 BAM from the 1.7 million BAM collected. Musicians were initially pleased, as they were unaware of the actual revenue generated.
“The initial royalties we received were encouraging. It was the first time we actually earned something from performance rights”, recalled Đani Pervan, a composer and producer from Sarajevo.
From 2018 to 2023, AIS started paying less and less money to Pervan and certain musicians, while royalty payments were increasing — at one point more than a million BAM per year.
“We kept working and recording, but the royalties were dropping”, recalled Pervan.
“The more works you register, the less you are rewarded. Something doesn’t seem right about that”, said renowned Sarajevo pianist Adis Sirbubalo, who regularly accompanies music star Dino Merlin.
Messy calculations
Radio and TV stations in Bosnia and Herzegovina are required to submit monthly playlists to AIS, which serve as the basis for calculating the payments to be distributed to musicians. Having reviewed playlists from 2020 and 2021, CIN journalists discovered disorganised data presented in various formats, including written documents, spreadsheets, and emails.
On many playlists, works were incorrectly entered, which meant they were excluded from calculations, preventing performers from earning any income from them. Royalties were also withheld due to broadcasters failing to submit playlists to AIS, leaving performers without accurate information about how often their works were aired or what their potential earnings should be.
For example, Merlin’s song “Jel’ Sarajevo gdje je nekad bilo”, a hit song frequently played on radio and TV stations, earned only 13 BAM in performance royalties in 2021.
“If I’m broadcast here 500 times, then I should be transparently listed in the AIS 500 times as well—not just handed 20 marks a year”, complained Dino Đihić, a singer-songwriter from Sarajevo.
His colleague, Semir Cerić Koke, noted that “some people in this line of business might rely entirely on this income and added that there was no justification for anyone treating it as their private business.”
Since 2020, the Sarajevo-based company Codeloops, owned by Marko Vištica, had been responsible for calculating the royalties for AIS, but the company ceased its involvement in the business in 2022. Although the Association was required to negotiate contracts with this company in compliance with the Public Procurement Act, it failed to do so. Instead, AIS entered into multiple direct agreements for the same services without following the mandatory tender process, leading to over 25,000 BAM being paid to the company.
The company Codeloops encountered disorganised data during the calculations, causing performers to file complaints with AIS and the Institute. As a result, Vištica had to recheck the payments. He declined to comment on the issue of public procurement.
The Institute insisted that AIS monitor the lists, calculations, and payments, and provide performers with precise data on the number of broadcasts. Unable to meet this requirement, AIS sought a solution.
Ajanović recognised an opportunity to profit from the situation. In early 2020, he suggested that AIS hire another company, in addition to Codeloops, to manage the data and calculations, a proposal that the Board of Directors accepted. The second company AIS contracted for IT services was ViatorTel from Sweden, which was managed by Ajanović and his wife. Ajanović charged around 42,000 BAM for these services. However, this was not permitted, as the Law on Associations and Foundations of Bosnia and Herzegovina prohibits individuals in responsible positions within associations from personally benefiting financially. AIS management was unable to explain to reporters how the two companies were simultaneously performing the same tasks.
CIN journalists uncovered two contracts between AIS and Ajanović’s company. The then-director of AIS, Jasmina Misirlić, refused to sign these contracts, but she claimed she did not know the company was owned by Ajanović.
“I simply didn’t think it was necessary to hire a foreign company for a job that could be done within Bosnia and Herzegovina”, she said. “I never had insight into those contracts because Mr. Ajanović restricted access to them”, said Misirlić.
Guja, who also signed the contracts, claims he signed one contract without knowing it was with Ajanović’s company, but that his signature was forged on another. “I never saw that one. All the documents were either in a safe or locked away somewhere”, he explained.
Ajanović, through his company, failed to resolve AIS’s issues because payments to the performers were delayed, and royalties were distributed without accompanying broadcast reports. This was confirmed to CIN journalists by the Institute: “We have no idea how they determined the amounts each performer was supposed to receive”, said Vitomir, adding that AIS did not oversee the work of the company ViatorTel.
At the end of 2022, the Institute warned AIS about the unlawful contracting of services with the company ViatorTel. Following this, Ajanović deleted the company from the Swedish register and did not renew the contract with AIS. Control over the calculation of royalties was subsequently taken over by Munir Hadrović, a programmer from Sweden who was both an employee of Ajanović’s company Tempo Digital and a personal friend. He explained that he had previously worked for AIS through ViatorTel.
“Almir asked me to step in and help with this. It was a partnership between Tempo and ViatorTel. My payments were processed through Tempo”, said Hadrović, adding that Ajanović, through Tempo Digital, provided him with a salary supplement for the services he performed for AIS. However, accounting records show that AIS paid Hadrović over 50,000 BAM for work performed in 2022.
Reuf Herić, who has been the director of AIS since mid-2024, stated that Hadrović was officially engaged for IT tasks but was secretly involved in calculating royalties—a claim Hadrović denies. Nevertheless, his email correspondence with Ajanović and AIS associates shows that he was responsible for these tasks under Ajanović’s supervision.
“Please reach out to Munir for any questions regarding the calculations”, Ajanović instructed his associates in one of the emails. Hadrović sent AIS data on royalty payments and the amount of content broadcast via email, using the Noctil software from an American company, for which AIS paid 26,500 BAM.
Amer Husejnović, a data processing and distribution specialist at AIS, confirms that they sent the lists to Hadrović for processing. He noticed that royalties were being calculated incorrectly and that adjustments were made without justification for certain performers, which he pointed out to Ajanović.
However, performers waited nearly two years for their royalty payments for 2022. They received part of the payment in July 2023, and after numerous complaints about the low payouts, Ajanović, on his own, ordered the urgent payment of additional royalties in April 2024, even though he lacked the necessary approval from the AIS Assembly. Although AIS collected over 1.16 million BAM in royalties for 2022, only about 332,000 BAM was paid out to the performers.
No one in AIS management could explain to reporters how ViatorTel and Hadrović processed the data for royalty payments from 2020 to the end of 2022. During that period, AIS collected over 3.3 million BAM, but less than 1.5 million BAM was paid out to the performers.
“They were handing it out generously to those they were on good terms with. For two years, I received about four and a half thousand BAM, and in the last year, I got no more than 1,800 BAM. Now, whether that’s realistic or how much I should have received, I’m not sure, but from what I’ve heard, our money ends up in private hands”, said Nihad Fetić Hakala, a singer from Zenica.
The Institute received numerous complaints from performers, prompting it to order AIS to conduct a complete review of the calculations. AIS failed to do so, leading the Institute to conditionally revoke AIS’s operating license in July 2024. AIS was instructed to implement proper control over the calculations and pay royalties to performers based on the actual use of their works. It is required to address the irregularities by mid-2025, or it will lose its operating license, which could leave performers without royalties.
“I feel responsible because I viewed all of this somewhat naively. I’ve been working in this field for 40 years, and now, in the end, someone is trying to discredit me in front of my family and friends, suggesting I was involved in some shady dealings”, said Guja.
Dissatisfied performers tried to remove the leadership of the Association, but they were unsuccessful because, as they claim, unknown members appeared at the Assemblies, protecting the leadership with their votes. One such instance occurred in Banja Luka in 2022.
“At that Assembly, an organised busload of members arrived. They were probably paid with some money and sandwiches to be the voting bloc for the leadership, driven by their personal interests”, said pianist Sirbubalo.
“They were brought there, God knows from where—probably from sawmills, construction sites, or something similar. I didn’t even know what they did, but they were the ones doing the bidding for the leadership,” explains his colleague, singer-songwriter Aldin Kurić Al’Dino.
Cash box of Don Almir
Contracts for the Swedish company were not the only unwarranted outflow of funds from AIS to Ajanović. Al’Dino, his colleague on the Board of Directors, noticed a discrepancy between royalty payments and organisational expenses. In 2022, Al’Dino uncovered numerous payments for the president’s travel expenses.
Documentation reveals that between 2016 and 2021, Ajanović signed service contracts with AIS for 18 trips, none of which he justified, even though he was required to. For these trips, he paid himself at least 32,000 BAM.
“Almir’s trips had no flight tickets or receipts for coffee or meals, yet expenses were listed as 1,800, 2,000, 2,500, or even 3,000 BAM. If someone travelled to Brussels for a conference, there should at least be evidence of a plane ticket”, said Kurić, who filed a criminal complaint with the Sarajevo Office for Anticorruption and Quality Management.
In a written response, Ajanović stated that his trips abroad were for negotiations with other organisations. His colleagues from AIS’s Technical Service, Assembly, Board of Directors, and Supervisory Board did not verify his activities nor were they aware of how he justified his travel expenses.
“I asked for written reports. But they were never provided. He would leave, but there were no reports. Then he or someone else from the Board would tell me not to rock the boat”, said Guja.
The Institute identified irregularities in the reimbursement of travel expenses and alerted the AIS leadership. To prevent further service agreements for Ajanović’s travel expenses, the Board of Directors decided in late 2021 to employ him.
However, this move was also irregular. The position and salary of the Chairman of the Board were not outlined in the regulations governing job classification and employee compensation. Ajanović was already receiving a monthly stipend of 500 BAM as the Chairman of the Board, but he subsequently began receiving a salary of approximately 3,000 BAM, which he collected for four years and four months. According to AIS data, this arrangement cost the organisation approximately 200,000 BAM. Additionally, AIS reported that Ajanović spent an average of half a month or more in Sweden rather than at his workplace.
“I regret signing off on his employment—it bothers me. I signed it because he couldn’t sign for himself,” said Guja, adding that his signature was forged on Ajanović’s last employment contract in October 2023.
Alongside Guja, Ajanović also unjustifiably received an additional monthly allowance of 400 BAM as a member of an expert committee formed to provide recommendations to the Board of Directors—a body in which both of them were members. According to records, the committee did not perform any work, yet they received around 27,000 BAM in 2020.
“There is no financial basis for this. Maybe the committee is actually needed, but it should have completely different people on it,” said Boris Sesar, Assistant Director for Budget, Financial, and Accounting Matters at the Institute for Intellectual Property of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Guja states that he protested against this committee and claims it was just a cover for Ajanović: “I looked at it through different eyes (…) But it was all packaged in a very shady way.”
AIS documentation reveals that Ajanović attempted to conceal his ownership of an 87-square-meter business space in Vogošća, where AIS’s headquarters were located, keeping this information from his colleagues. Between 2018 and 2023, AIS paid approximately 90,000 BAM in rent for the property.
The property was previously owned by the local company MURAI-KOMERC, with which AIS had a lease agreement from 2016 to 2018. In 2018, Ajanović purchased the property, but the lease was not terminated, and AIS continued paying rent to MURAI-KOMERC until 2020. After that, the lease agreement was signed by Ajanović’s acquaintance from Vogošća, Hasan Alagić, who acted as the lessor. Alagić assured journalists that Ajanović was not the property owner. When presented with ownership documents, he responded curtly with, “Goodbye and have a nice day.”
The new AIS director, Reuf Herić, who in 2024 discovered that Ajanović was the owner of the property, was confused as to why the rent payments were made to the Vogošća company’s account. In November 2023, the company informed members of the AIS Management and Supervisory Boards, as well as the General Assembly that “AIS had purchased the property it had been renting,” a claim included in their criminal complaint submitted to the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH. Despite being informed about the inquiry, MURAI-KOMERC declined to respond to calls from CIN journalists.
Land records show that Ajanović purchased the office space for 30,000 BAM. In the same building in Vogošća and from the same company, he also bought a 63-square-meter apartment in 2016 for another 30,000 BAM. According to real estate agent Mirza Hadžijahić from Sarajevo, these properties are now valued at approximately 450,000 BAM.
During his tenure at AIS, Ajanović acquired an apartment in downtown Sarajevo and another commercial property in Vogošća for a total of 225,000 BAM. The sales contracts do not indicate that he took out loans to finance these purchases. Additionally, he owns half a dunam of land purchased from the Municipality of Vogošća, located along the main road to Sarajevo. A residential and commercial building is being constructed on this plot of land, and land records reveal that Ajanović has already pre-sold one of the apartments.
Inflating airplay
Since its inception, AIS has been legally obligated to develop software for collecting data on the broadcasting of works, but this has never happened. Ajanović claims that creating proprietary software is expensive, while his colleagues believe that some individuals benefit from keeping the accounting system in a grey zone.
“When something automated takes over, there’s no room for manipulation”, says Al’Dino.
Given the lack of oversight over broadcasters, representatives from RSG and BHRT explained to journalists that this essentially means they could list whatever they want on the playlist reports. This allows them to manipulate data on the number of times certain songs are aired on radio and TV stations.
“Performers would approach us, offering money to air their songs. Later, they started trying to bribe program hosts with envelopes of cash”, said Adnan Osmanagić, director of the RSG Group.
Among performers, this system of inflating airplay is a well-known issue.
“You can bribe any editor today to alter the playlist. You make a deal with them to share the profits, and in this way, you siphon money from the association”, explained pianist Sirbubalo.
Using a similar scheme, Ajanović exploited the system to channel funds through the broadcasting of his songs on the TV channels BMC Music and BMC Etno, which are linked to his Swedish company, Supreme Holding AB. Investigations by CIN revealed that in 2021, these channels recorded 96,000 broadcasts of Ajanović’s works. This amounts to his songs being played for an average of 15 hours a day throughout the entire year. From these broadcasts, he allocated approximately 6,000 BAM to himself in royalties. However, for using music from all performers, including his own, Ajanović’s television channels paid AIS a monthly fee of just 8.5 BAM.
“The ones who live best are those thriving off our backs”, remarked Al’Dino.
Hundreds of radio and TV stations, along with private entities, evade paying AIS for the music they use, as there are no penalties for non-compliance. Among the 80 to 90 entities that agreed to pay fees, many still fail to meet their obligations regularly. By the end of 2023, AIS was owed over 250,000 BAM.
According to AIS’s financial records, the biggest debtors include TV1, RTV KISS, Radio Kameleon, FACE TV, ATV, Bobar Radio, RTVBIH, RTV FBiH, and Otvorena Mreža. For years, legal fees have also gone unpaid by major retail centres such as Sarajevo City Centre, FIS Vitez, Konzum, Robot Centres, Crvena Jabuka, Tropic, Hoše Komerc, and many others.
Although they are legally required to do so, inspections in Bosnia and Herzegovina do not impose fines for unauthorised music broadcasting, nor do they monitor whether broadcasters and private entities pay royalties to AIS. The Federal Administration for Inspection Affairs informed CIN reporters that these checks are not recorded in their records. The RS Inspectorate stated that they are not responsible for these matters.
At the AIS Assembly meeting held in early 2024, Ajanović was removed from his position as President of the Management Board by a majority vote. His colleagues in the management claim that after his dismissal, he spent several days blocking access to the offices from which he was removing documentation. They say he also hired physical security for the offices, paying around 2,700 BAM using AIS funds. All irregularities in operations have been reported to the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Prosecutor’s Office of Sarajevo Canton, which are investigating the allegations from the criminal complaints.
