The Freedom Movement as a Playing Field for New Business Opportunities

Meta Gantar

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For more than two years, the two companies of lawyer Peter Premk, brother of Freedom Movement MP Martin Premk, have had no restrictions on dealings with the National Assembly. Peter Premk was also a co-founder of the predecessor of the Freedom Movement (Gibanje Svoboda), where Finance Minister Klemen Boštjančič is now Vice-President. His ministry has transferred nearly 27 thousand euro to Premk’s company in a year.

Illustration: Mashoni

Peter Premk, the older brother of Martin Premk, an MP of the Freedom Movement party (Gibanje Svoboda), became known to the public in 1995 as Deputy Director of the Central Securities Clearing Corporation (KDD), a position he assumed six months after the KDD was established and left in the spring of 2005.

»Ten years in one company is a long time, I’m ready for new challenges,« he then explained his resignation according to the magazine Finance. He was dismissed of his own free will and planned to »withdraw completely from financial circles, starting on my own,« as Finance reported.

Over the next 20 years Peter Premk found a variety of fresh challenges – from importing coconut products to politics.

As a qualified lawyer and sole proprietor, he has been providing business and legal advice since 2015. His clients in the past year have included the Ministry of Finance, which is headed by Klemen Boštjančič, Vice-President of the Freedom Movement.

Since last September, the Ministry of Finance has paid almost €27,000 to Mr. Premk for his services, most of which, close to €19,000, was paid out in August this year.

Peter Premk stated for Oštro that these were fees for legal advice regarding the introduction of distributed ledgers in small and medium-sized enterprises, as set out in the Capital Market Development Strategy 2023-2030. The signing of the governing contract was so complicated that he had spent more time on it than on the project itself, he explained. On this project, he said, he had been in contact with the State Secretary at the Ministry, Nikolina Prah, and not with the Minister.

In 2021, under the auspices of the European Commission, he was also involved in the project Strategy for the Development of the Capital Market in Slovenia, on which the Treasury’s strategy for the above project was modelled.

The Chinese portal Asia Times has alleged that Peter Premk was an advisor to Klemen Boštjančič, the current Slovenian Minister of Finance. It was reported that, at the time, he was trying to get the Slovenian healthcare sector to use the Ukrainian digital information system Diia, which enables public services to be provided through a single online platform.

»I am not an advisor to Finance Minister Boštjančič,« Mr. Premk has personally stated. Although he was not aware of the Asia Times report, he clarified that he had never advocated for the introduction of the Diia IT system in Slovenian healthcare.

The Ministry of Finance likewise denied that Peter Premk is an advisor to Minister Boštjančič, while also being unaware, until receiving Oštro’s questions, that he is the brother of Martin Premk, a party colleague of the Minister. Nor were they aware of the Diia digital information system.

Peter Premk received just under €27,000 from the Ministry on the basis of a contract concluded for a period between May last year and June this year. He was contracted to draw up a legal opinion on the preparation of guidelines and proposals for the establishment of a digital platform, as set in the government measure on the creation of the startup market for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The contract involved the preparation of five documents – a baseline, analyses, and an action plan for the introduction of distributed ledgers in SMEs.

Peter Premk is also the single owner of Cobio, an importer of coconut oil, sugar and water into Slovenia. The company has been supplying products to shops, restaurants, massage and beauty parlours since 2006, but its website is no longer accessible.

The company had its bank account blocked from April to June this year according to Ajpes, and has been inactive since 2019 according to Mr. Premk. He does not know when it will be removed from the register, as »it might come in handy again in the future«.

At the time of writing, neither this company nor Premk’s sole proprietorship were on the list of entities restricted from doing business with the National Assembly, as is required under the Integrity and Prevention of Corruption Act.

We are still waiting for an explanation from MP Martin Premk as to why he did not inform the Assembly about these companies, so that the latter could inform the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption which maintains the list of restricted companies. Peter Premk, the MPs’ brother, assured us: »I am not in business with the National Assembly in any capacity, nor do I intend to be.«

Brother’s invitation

Martin Premk, who holds a PhD in modern history, has been an MP since 2022. His older brother Peter had started his foray into politics at least one year earlier.

In 2021, Peter Premk helped found and was elected to the board of the Green Action Party, the predecessor of the Freedom Movement. The party was then chaired by Jure Leben, now State Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office and former Minister of the Environment and Spatial Planning. Premk remained a member of the party’s council following its name change and the merger with the List of Marjan Šarec and the Party of Alenka Bratušek into what is now the Freedom Movement.

Martin Premk was invited to stand as a parliamentary candidate by his older brother, who told Oštro that he gave his sibling the idea in a phone conversation. Martin agreed and was subsequently elected. As Peter explained: »He always struck me as the perfect MP candidate – without any baggage, affairs or previous partisan involvement. I said to myself, if anyone is going to be elected, it’ll be him.«

At the beginning of last year, Peter Premk also became a member of the Supervisory Board of the Ig Municipality. His term of office ends in 2026.

Slippery memory

Peter Premk began working in business consultancy already during his employment at the KDD, according to data from last year’s project Cyprus Confidential by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and its partners, including Oštro. In 2004 namely, he drew up a business plan for Salik Computer Systems, a Cypriot IT consultancy company.

Salik Computer Systems was, according to this information, controlled by a Canadian national, Michael Salik, who had an address in Slovenia around 1997. He instructed the company’s managing director, otherwise a corporate management employee of the Cypriot company MeritServus, to carry out transfers on behalf of Salik Computer Systems. Another MeritServus employee was tasked with the same procedures, in addition to managing the safekeeping of business documents.

Correspondence between Mr. Salik and MeritServus employees from 2005 to 2007 shows that the Central Securities Clearing Corporation (KDD) was also doing business with this company at the time.

The KDD explained that, after its establishment, they wanted to ensure the setup of an optimal IT system with the assistance of foreign experts, including Michael Salik. They now have their own software solutions largely developed. They did not comment on the details of the transactions due to the age and confidentiality of the information.

In 2004, while Peter Premk was still employed at the KDD, Mr. Salik instructed one of his directors to transfer $45,000 from the company’s account to the Swiss bank account of Mr. Premk, as payment for the preparation of a project business plan.

According to the Cyprus Confidential project, Peter Premk and Salik Computer Systems continued to maintain business contacts after Premk’s departure from the KDD. Salik Computer Systems was removed from the Cypriot register in 2021 following its voluntary liquidation.

Peter Premk stated for Oštro that Michael Salik had cooperated with the KDD as an IT systems administrator. He does not recall doing business consulting for Salik Computer Systems, but he did confirm that he remains in contact with Mr. Salik. He did not wish to clarify the details regarding his bank account in Switzerland, mentioning only that his wife had worked abroad in 2004.

He is now working abroad himself; since November 2022 he has been cooperating with GFMS Consulting, an international company based in London, which advises financial markets stakeholders, such as stock exchanges, finance ministries or central banks, in 24 countries.