{"text":[[{"start":7.12,"text":"Serbian authorities have detained the owner of Alta Bank and accused him of emptying the deposit vault in the wake of Aleksandar Vučić’s recent election loss."}],[{"start":16.16,"text":"Davor Macura and two other bank officials were arrested following days of searches at the bank’s premises and Macura’s home, Serbian police said on Tuesday. Macura was suspected of illegally removing more than €380mn worth of cash from the bank’s vault, they added."}],[{"start":33.08,"text":"The National Bank of Serbia on Saturday revoked the bank’s operating licence, saying it had come under a financial and liquidity strain after its clients, many of Russian nationality, made large withdrawals and millions of euros worth of those funds left the country last week."}],[{"start":48.8,"text":"Alta Bank and Macura were among the first targets of an anti-corruption drive following the fall of Vučić, whose increasingly authoritarian 12-year rule ended when a student-led movement defeated his SNS party in October 25 parliamentary elections."}],[{"start":63.96,"text":"Vučić had called the snap vote after resigning as president, hoping to retain power as prime minister in a move reminiscent of Vladimir Putin’s switch in 2008."}],[{"start":73.28,"text":"Macura’s alleged accomplices, the director of Alta’s treasury and cash management department and a treasury operations associate, “handed [Macura] their access cards to the vault or enabled him to enter the ‘Depo’ vault without authorisation by using their own cards and accompanying him”, the prosecutors said."}],[{"start":91.64,"text":"“During these unauthorised entries, [Macura] allegedly removed money from the vault, thereby obtaining an unlawful financial benefit of approximately 45bn dinars.”"}],[{"start":102.08,"text":"Alta’s parent company has previously faced scrutiny from the European Central Bank over suspected money laundering as part of an attempt to acquire an Austrian lender, Addiko, with the ECB questioning whether the bank could verify the legitimate origin of deposits."}],[{"start":116.48,"text":"Alta has said the ECB probe found no wrongdoing."}],[{"start":119.36,"text":"Ljiljana Borović Marjanović, a Belgrade criminal defence lawyer who has handled organised crime and high-level corruption cases, said that Alta had grown from a small money exchange office on the outskirts of Belgrade into a systemic bank after it acquired a Serbian state-owned lender and took on government business."}],[{"start":138.96,"text":"The bank was also the only one that catered to Russian businesses and individuals alike, growing its balance sheet severalfold after the arrival of tens of thousands of Russian nationals following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022."}],[{"start":153.88,"text":"“The bank’s rapid growth, the enormous increase in the number of its branches and offices, and the expansion of its operations into other business sectors and neighbouring countries within an exceptionally short period of time raised legitimate concerns among financial and banking experts,” Borović Marjanović said."}],[{"start":171.2,"text":"“These concerns centred on suspicions that the bank was in fact being used for illicit financial operations, particularly money laundering and the transfer of substantial amounts of money abroad on behalf of and for the benefit of senior [ruling party] officials,” she said."}],[{"start":186,"text":"Serbia’s acting president Ana Brnabić — a Vučić loyalist who once served as his prime minister — called the allegations of Alta acting as the regime’s bank “absolute nonsense” and a “caricature”."}],[{"start":197,"text":"She added that Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party had secured the country’s first investment-grade sovereign credit rating while in government and had co-operated with international anti-money laundering organisations such as the Financial Action Task Force."}],[{"start":210.44,"text":"“Alta Bank was not an SNS bank, and the SNS did not operate a banking network for its own benefit,” she said."}],[{"start":217.2,"text":"The National Bank of Serbia did not respond to requests for comment."}],[{"start":220.92,"text":"Macura has denied wrongdoing, telling the FT before his arrest that his bank had been the target of “a sustained campaign of hostile briefing, leaks and insinuation” by its regional competitors."}],[{"start":232.26,"text":"“At no point did the caretaker government, the prime minister, the acting president, the National Bank or the incoming administration approach Alta Group to discuss a proportionate measure — a recapitalisation, a restructuring, an orderly rescue by the parent company,” Macura said."}],[{"start":247.68,"text":"“If a systemic group can be treated this way in Serbia — its bank closed overnight, without process, in the first week after an election — then no investor and no depositor is safe, and the cost will be borne not by me but by Serbia’s economy,” he added."}],[{"start":263.84,"text":"Austrian lender Raiffeisen Bank International, which had been previously selected to take over Addiko and had agreed to sell some Addiko assets to Alta in a carve-out, said it “expects to remain owner of all of Addiko’s subsidiaries including the one in Serbia” as it no longer expected Alta Group “to get regulatory approval for a possible carve-out”."}],[{"start":288.61,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1793780934_9386.mp3"}