Karić was sentenced after he admitted to giving money to a former director of the BiH Indirect Taxation Authority (UIO), Kemal Čaušević, so that his firms could receive preferential treatment.
According to the indictment, in the beginning of 2007, Čaušević got in touch with Anes Sadiković and Karić, the owners of companies importing textile from Turkey, China and Hungary. Čaušević offered no detailed inspections of cargo, and customs would clear importers’ fake invoices or make them smaller in value.
In exchange, Čaušević asked Sadiković and Karić to pay him 1,000 KM per each truckload of goods. Between 2007 and February 2011, Sadiković and Karićs’ companies imported more than 1,722 truckloads of textile. According to the indictment, the two have paid Čaušević at least 1.72 million KM. Karić’s share was 425,000 KM.
Karić’s case was set apart from Čaušević and Sadiković’s after he reached plea bargain with the BiH Prosecutor’s Office.
In May 2017, the prosecutors and defense counsel agreed that Karić would receive a one-year sentence in exchange for giving a testimony against Čaušević and Sadiković.
Between 2004 and 2012, Čaušević invested illicit gains into legal economy by buying a number of expensive real properties worth around 1.2 million KM, in and around Sarajevo. CIN has written about this in detail.
The UIO’s former director is also charged with abuse of office in relation to a public bid for printing revenue tags. Čaušević approved a 200,000 KM restitution to a complaining bidder, Glas Srpski” – Grafika AD Banja Luka, even though there were no grounds for it as no damage had been done.
