Zvonko Veselinovic (Veselinovic), the leader of the Zvonko Veselinovic Organized Crime Group (OCG), is one of Kosovo’s most notorious corrupt figures. The Veselinovic OCG is engaged in a largescale bribery scheme with Kosovar and Serbian security officials who facilitate the group’s illicit trafficking of goods, money, narcotics, and weapons between Kosovo and Serbia. The group has also conspired with various politicians in several quid pro quo agreements, including the early 2019 bribery of Kosovar security officials to allow their smuggling operations between Serbia and Kosovo and the late 2017 bribery of Kosovar border security officials to allow safe passage for smugglers. As of late 2017, Veselinovic and his brother Zharko Jovan Veselinovic (Zharko) had agreements with politicians to help their party win elections, secure political victories for their candidates, and contribute large sums of money to candidates. In return, these politicians would grant the brothers control of certain areas for their businesses and where they could conduct their illicit business activities without interference by Serbian authorities, and would also provide proprietary business information to support the brothers’ business investments. The politicians would also reward the Veselinovic brothers by working to grant the brothers the best infrastructure contracts. As of late 2017, Veselinovic and Zharko made donations as a method of laundering money originating from their criminal enterprise. Zharko has been a leader in the Veselinovic OCG, working with his brother and the OCG in their smuggling activities, their violent intimidations of businesses, their construction and infrastructure projects, and their telecommunications development projects. Additionally, Veselinovic and his group were indicted for their alleged involvement in the murder of political party leader Oliver Ivanovic in January 2018. Veselinovic and fellow members of the OCG, Milan Rajko Radojcic (Radojcic), Zeljko Bojic (Bojic), and Marko Rosic (Rosic), were all named in the indictment for the murder, each serving their role in the assassination for the criminal enterprise.
Veselinovic, Zharko, and Radojcic are designated pursuant to E.O. 13818 for being foreign persons who are or have been a leader or official of an entity, including any government entity, that has engaged in, or whose members have engaged in, corruption, including the misappropriation of state assets, the expropriation of private assets for personal gain, corruption related to government contracts or the extraction of natural resources, or bribery, related to their tenure.
On December 23, 2016, the President signed the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (Pub. L. 114-328, Title XII, Subtitle F) (the “Act”) into law. The Act authorized the President to impose targeted sanctions on any foreign person the President determines is, among other things, responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights, or a government official, or a senior associate of such an official, responsible for, or complicit in, ordering, controlling, or otherwise directing, acts of significant corruption.
On December 20, 2017, the President, invoking the authority of, inter alia, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701-1706) (IEEPA), issued Executive Order 13818 (82 FR 60839, December 26, 2017) (E.O. 13818), effective at 12:01 a.m. eastern standard time on December 21, 2017.
In E.O. 13818, the President determined that serious human rights abuse and corruption around the world constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States and declared a national emergency to deal with that threat.
OFAC is issuing the Global Magnitsky Sanctions Regulations, 31 CFR part 583 (the “Regulations”), to implement the Act and E.O. 13818, pursuant to authorities delegated to the Secretary of the Treasury in E.O. 13818. A copy of E.O. 13818 appears in appendix A to this part.
