Ivo Sanader
21 November 2012. Ivo Sanader is found guilty of taking bribes from two foreign companies and is sentenced to 10 years in prison. The former Croatian prime minister has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for taking bribes from two foreign companies, becoming the highest state official to be convicted of corruption in the future European Union member state. A Zagreb county court on Tuesday found Ivo Sanader, 59, guilty of agreeing in 2008 to accept a payment from Hungary’s energy group MOL of five million euros in exchange for granting it full management rights over Croatia’s oil concern INA. Croatia is due to join the EU in July 2013 and Sanader’s conviction is likely to be seen as evidence it is cracking down on corruption. Its efforts to fight crime and graft are being carefully monitored before it formally joins the bloc. Hungarian oil and gas giant MOL “rejected categorically” bribing Sanader. “A crime did not happen, MOL did not give any kind of payment to politicians or decision-makers,” the company said in a statement. MOL said it considers the case to be “less about MOL and INA and more as a Croatian political matter.”
