For the Minister of Finance and former mayor of Belgrade, Siniš Mali, the education of his children in a prestigious private school in Belgrade cost over 235.000 euros - more than double what he could earn from his salary.
The finance minister's children's school expenses were paid with money of dubious origin that flowed from several mysterious offshore companies, KRIK and OCCRP journalists reveal.
Following the trail of money, journalists discover that behind one of those offshore companies Mali himself is hiding, behind another is a domestic businessman unknown to the general public, while the third is closely connected with the international group "Comita" based in Moscow. In Serbia, "Comita" cooperates with the companies of Ivan Bošnjak and Stojan Vujek, the owners "Millennium Team", close to the ruling SNS.
"Our children go to a private school and the expenses for all three children - 60.000 euros per year, are borne by my friends. The friends who finance my children are friends I met abroad, who have no connection with Serbia," said the then mayor of Belgrade in 2016. Sinish Mali in court.
Mali, who recently divorced before that, stated this in one of the proceedings he led against his ex-wife, KRIK recalls. His monthly salary at that time was around 1.000 euros and he could not possibly afford this expensive private school. His ex-wife's lawyer then tried to ask him which friends are paying for the school of the mayor's children, but the judge prohibited this question. The answer remains a mystery, to this day.
KRIK and the journalist network OCCRP are now revealing details about how Siniša Mali financed the expensive education of his three children at the International School of Belgrade. School fees differed from year to year, pre-school and first grades are cheaper than higher grades, and the mayor's children went to school at different years - so seven years of their education, according to KRIK's calculation, cost around 235.000 euros.
How expensive is that?
Annual tuition for just one student costs almost twice as much as the annual salary of the mayor of Belgrade. But that didn't stop Siniša Malog - the current Minister of Finance of Serbia and a close ally of President Aleksandar Vučić - from ensuring that his children attend this elite private school.
In order to achieve this, Mali, according to KRIK, had to supplement his household budget with dubious and non-transparent inflows of money that arrived from various notorious offshore locations. The money for his children's school fees was paid by three mysterious companies registered in states where it is easy to hide their ownership.
However, documents obtained by KRIK and OCCRP journalists - from the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, but also from offshore locations - provide details on how this operation was carried out.
Mali himself is hiding behind one of those companies, as revealed by KRIK - and not his "friends" as he said in court. This company, "Alessio Investment" from the British Virgin Islands, paid more than 130.000 euros to the school. That company, by the way, is connected to a corrupt business from two decades ago - through it, the Mali family illegally appropriated 10 hectares of state land near Vršac, which KRIK previously wrote about.
About 50.000 euros to finance the education of Mali's children came from the offshore company "Avant Trade Technical Limited" from Cyprus, closely related to the international group "Comita" based in Moscow. This group deals with the construction of gas pipelines at the European level, and in Serbia they did business with the sister company of the Serbian construction giant "Millennium Team" - a company already known for its connections with Mali.
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