Croatian privatization controversy - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Croatian privatization controversy is a common name used to describe matters associated with the criminal activity

Criminal Activity

Criminal Activity is the debut album by American rap supergroup Criminalz, which consisted of Spice 1, Celly Cel and Jayo Felony. It was released August 7, 2001 on Celly Cel's label, Realside Records. The album was produced by Doyle, G-Man Stan, Spice 1 and Stan Keith...

which plunged the Republic of Croatia into an economic depression immediately after its creation.

Events

After the collapse of SFR Yugoslavia

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...

President Tuđman of the Croatian Democratic Union

Croatian Democratic Union

The Croatian Democratic Union is the main center-right political party in Croatia. It is the biggest and strongest individual Croatian party since independence of Croatia. The Christian democratic HDZ governed Croatia from 1990 to 2000 and, in partial coalition, from 2003...

initiated the process of privatization

Privatization

Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...

and de-nationalization

Nationalization

Nationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...

in Croatia, however, this was far from transparent and fully legal. The fact that the new government's legal system was inneficient and slow, as well as the wider context of the Yugoslav wars

Yugoslav wars

The Yugoslav Wars were a series of wars, fought throughout the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 1995. The wars were complex: characterized by bitter ethnic conflicts among the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, mostly between Serbs on the one side and Croats and Bosniaks on the other; but also...

caused numerous incidents known collectively in Croatia as the "Privatization robbery" (). Nepotism

Nepotism

Nepotism is favoritism granted to relatives regardless of merit. The word nepotism is from the Latin word nepos, nepotis , from which modern Romanian nepot and Italian nipote, "nephew" or "grandchild" are also descended....

was endemic, with the President deciding on a concept of "200 families" that would control all property in Croatia, and during this period many influential individuals with the backing of the authorities acquired state-owned property and companies at extremely low prices, afterwards selling them off piecemeal to the highest bidder for much larger sums. This proved very lucrative for the new owners, but in the vast majority of cases this (along with the separation from the previously secured Yugoslav market

Market

A market is one of many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange. While parties may exchange goods and services by barter, most markets rely on sellers offering their goods or services in exchange for money from buyers...

s) also caused the bankruptcy

Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....

of the (previously successful) firm, causing the unemployment

Unemployment

Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...

of thousands of citizens, a problem Croatia still struggles with to this day.

It is also beyond doubt that not few shadowy figures who moved close to Tuđman, the centre of power in Croatian society, profited from this enormously, having amassed wealth with suspicious celerity. Although this phenomenon is common to chaotic reforms in most post-communist societies (the best example being Russia with her "oligarchs"), the majority of Croats are of the opinion that Tuđman could and should have prevented at least a part of these malfeasances because nothing similar has happened to Slovenia

Slovenia

Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...

with who Croatia has been inside Yugoslavia. The most common allegations sprouting from this state that he probably personally profited from this.

The charge of nepotism and favoritism (elitism), frequently leveled at Tuđman himself, has been resolved in 2007 when his daughter, Nevenka Tuđman, was found guilty of corruption, but set free because too many years has passed from time of the crime.. There are also other instances of apparent family nepotism. His son Miroslav Tuđman

Miroslav Tuđman

Miroslav Tuđman is a Croatian scientist and politician, the son of first president Franjo Tuđman.Tuđman was born in Belgrade where he completed grade school, before he moved with his family to Zagreb in 1961.He was born on his parents 1st anniversary...

occupied the position of Chief of the HIS, the Croatian secret service, during the time of his father's presidency and in second half of the 1990s (Franjo Tuđman's second tenure), his grandchild, Dejan Košutić, became the owner of the Kaptol bank and had emigrated from Croatia to Serbia

Serbia

Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...

after his grandfather's death. He has returned only in 2005 when he is opening information security consulting company Kvadra savjetovanje d.o.o. http://sigurnost.info/o-portalu-sigurnost.info.html. Franjo Tuđman is often accused of having acquired his personal property by dishonest means .

Events

See also