Dinamo Zagreb chief probed over bribery, tax fraud

ZAGREB: Police on Thursday searched the homes of controversial Dinamo Zagreb chief Zdravko Mamic and his younger brother Zoran, the Croatian champions’ coach, in a bribery and tax evasion probe, the club and prosecutors said.
Following an order from a Zagreb tribunal a “probe is being conducted by anti-graft police against executive president Zdravko Mamic and coach Zoran Mamic,” a club statement said.
Dinamo Zagreb players and the two men are currently in neighbouring Slovenia preparing for next season.
Local media reported that apart from the searches of their apartments and houses in Zagreb, police have also searched the club’s premises at the Maksimir stadium.
Meanwhile, the national anti-graft bureau USKOK said in a statement it was conducting “urgent evidence gathering measures against Dinamo Zagreb officials suspected of giving and receiving bribes, tax evasion and other offences.”
It did not provide any name, but said that one tax administration official was also targeted by the investigation.
But the Mamic brothers labelled the allegations “absolutely pointless and constructed.”
“We are confident that we will prove the legality of our actions and decisions,” they said pledging to cooperate with the prosecutors.
Zdravko Mamic, considered the most influential man in Croatian football, is a rather controversial figure. The 55-year-old is well known for his outspoken behaviour and threatening journalists.
Last year he was convicted of slander and ordered to pay 17,000 euros ($19,000, £12,000) to a lawyer representing Brazil-born Croatian striker Eduardo da Silva. In 2014, he was acquitted of inciting hatred with a slur against an ethnic Serb minister.