Central Bosnia Canton Prosecutor’s Office filed a new indictment against lawyer Emina Begić from Bugojno.
According to the indictment, in 2017 she abused the trust of Amira Mačak and her children, whom she represented in the dispute against company Ferosil from Jajce, and unlawfully kept BAM 250,000 of their money.
After the first-instance court rendered a verdict in favor of the Mačak family, lawyer Begić misused the power of attorney previously granted to her to settle the case with company Ferosil out of court without the knowledge of her clients.
The agreement was signed at the notary office of Ivan Šarić in Gornji Vakuf-Uskoplje and based on this agreement the lawsuit was withdrawn. Pursuant to the agreement, Ferosil paid BAM 250,000 to the trust account of notary Šarić who, lollowing the instructions provided by lawyer Begić, forwarded the money to her account. According to the indictment, she kept the money.
The SBK Prosecutor’s Office is now asking the Travnik Municipal Court, before which the case will be heard, to confiscate from Begić the BAM 250,000 she unlawfully acquired.
She is already on trial before the same Court for a similar offense. In 2019, the SBK Prosecutor’s Office accused her of abusing clients’ trust, falsifying documents, and keeping about BAM 1.4 million of her clients’ money i.e., Amira Mačak and other people who hired this lawyer to help them in real estate trading.
While the FBiH Lawyer’s Profession Act says that a lawyer against whom charges have been brought may be suspended until the end of the proceedings, this has not yet happened in the case of lawyer Begić because the Bar Association of FBiH has never conducted a disciplinary procedure against her.
In response to CIN’s inquiry about the second indictment, the Bar Association replied that they would inform the Board thereon.
Lawyer Begić did not want to comment on the indictment, and notary Ivan Šarić resigned as a notary at the end of April last year.
