{"id":33803,"date":"2020-10-26T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-26T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ostro.si\/?p=33803"},"modified":"2026-06-03T12:53:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T10:53:21","slug":"as-a-slovenian-tycoons-empire-crumbled-his-bank-accounts-swelled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ostro.si\/en\/stories\/fincen-files\/as-a-slovenian-tycoons-empire-crumbled-his-bank-accounts-swelled\/","title":{"rendered":"As a Slovenian Tycoon\u2019s Empire Crumbled, His Bank Accounts Swelled"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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After Slovenia\u2019s independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, the former socialist state privatized its assets, giving each citizen a certificate to invest in the few <\/strong>blue-chip firms the country had at the time. <\/p>\n

The government created \u201cauthorized investment companies\u201d where Slovenians could pool their certificates. Those companies then invested in the newly privatized enterprises. Over time, many of the firms merged and became dynamic financial groups, often run by homegrown capitalists. <\/p>\n

Darko Horvat, whose Aktiva Group made him one of the richest people in Slovenia, is a product of that era.<\/p>\n

As his bundle of special investment companies became global in scope, he moved his family to the United Kingdom, telling a Slovenian financial daily in 2002 of his vision to make Aktiva \u201ca proper multinational.\u201d <\/p>\n

But a decade later, his debt-ridden empire collapsed, leaving Slovenian taxpayers liable for a a nearly 100-million-euro bailout. Horvat, who stepped away from his businesses in 2009, has faded from the public scene \u2014 but he didn\u2019t leave a poor man. <\/p>\n

Leaked Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) filed by banks to the U.S. Treasury Department\u2019s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) reveal that, from December 2011 to November 2016, Horvat\u2019s personal accounts and those of entities connected to him were involved in making US$48.2 million in transfers.<\/p>\n

Some of that money appears to have originated from companies connected to his business empire. Part of the cost of Aktiva\u2019s demise was transferred to Slovenian taxpayers, as the government was forced to bail out the banks that Horvat\u2019s core company, then known as Aktiva nalo\u017ebe, was indebted to. <\/p>\n

Barclays Bank in New York filed the SAR, describing the payments as being of suspicious origin. The bank noted that in 2015 Horvat was listed as \u201cself-employed with an annual income of about 600,000 euros (approximately $645,508).\u201d <\/p>\n

While a SAR is not an allegation of criminal activity, banks file them to let the U.S. financial intelligence agency know when they see transactions that might be problematic.<\/p>\n

In this instance, the SAR shows that Horvat was able to retain wealth while everyday Slovenians paid some of the costs of cleaning up his failed business empire. Moreover, the SAR shows that a Gibraltar-based company once related to Aktiva Group sent money to his personal account to repay a loan. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n