It has been exactly 10 years since the VZMD has directly notified all the bond owners of the Slovenian banks and invited them to participate in the specific measures that had been drawn up in order to maintain their investments – less than a month later, the first initiatives for a constitutional review of the controversial amendment of the Banking Act (ZBan-1L) were lodged with the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia (VIDEO: https://youtu.be/1qMbXiF1SK0). In 2013, right before the holiday season, the Constitutional Court acknowledged the legitimate interest of the first 290 initiators under the auspices of the VZMD, accepted the initiative for adjudication as an »ABSOLUTELY PRIORITY CASE«, and at the same time unfortunately rejected the proposal for the suspension of the implementation of what was evidently unconstitutional law. Thus, the wipe-out of the shares and subordinated bonds begun the very same day. 10 years later – despite all the available remedies, numerous proceedings and activities to eliminate the outrageous injustices – over 110,000 expropriated investors are still waiting for the justice to be done or, at the very least, to be granted the constitutionally guaranteed right to remedy.
Last month, the VZMD warned the Government of the Republic of Slovenia of the inadequate and third(!) attempt to resolve the current state with the latest proposed Bill on Judicial Relief Granted to Former Holders of Qualified Bank Credit (ZPSVIKOB). Having highlighted the fundamental issues of the new Bill, the VZMD is once again proposing a simple yet effective solution (VIDEO: https://youtu.be/PC9BfVnR-0k) that would at least partly restore the confidence of the Slovenian investors holding as much as €27,000,000,000 worth of bank deposits. The VZMD President, Mr. Kristjan Verbič, also called upon the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia to relieve Slovenian institutions and the expropriated investors of several years-long court proceedings involving over one hundred thousand participants (VIDEO: https://youtu.be/DKEBhSfbXNM), to commission the preparation of a new and unencumbered valuation of the banks, and to make the legal proceedings compulsory only for those who would disagree with the result of a fair valuation – this time in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The fair value of the confiscated property is objective and thus independent of the subjective actions of individuals or institutions in legal proceedings. The Republic of Slovenia could have long ago carried out independent valuations of the 'reorganized' banks according to the IFRS, and used it as a basis for the settlement of the expropriated investors.
Furthermore, the VZMD keeps pointing out that despite the 'reorganization' of the banks, their assets have not disappeared; instead, they have been undervalued and transferred to the BAMC (until recently the Bank Asset Management Company). On several occasions, the VZMD and its associates highlighted some specific and telling examples, e.g. the shares of the company Letrika as security. These and many other shares were transferred to the BAMC at the value of €10.5 per share at a time when their value at the organized market of the Ljubljana Stock Exchange was €31, and as much as €42 three weeks after the transfer – in June 2014, they were sold at €67.1! In this example alone, the Nova KBM or rather their shareholders lost 9 million EUR, and by selling the shares the entire loan could have been repaid twice over. There are many such and similar cases which were covered by the mainstream media. Therefore, the VZMD has been a proponent of and has proposed in legal form that the assets of the former BAMC – without any burden to the budget of the Republic of Slovenia and the Bank of Slovenia – be used as the source of the pay-off of the expropriated shareholders. The BAMC, of course, turned a deaf ear to any such proposal. At the end of last year, the BAMC was merged with the Slovenian Sovereign Holding (SSH) which means that the latter should have used the entire positive impact of the merger to remedy the disadvantages and damages.
Within ten years, it became crystal clear to virtually every impartial observer that the reorganization of the Slovenian banks was carried out in a highly problematic manner, without considering the international accounting principles, and by means of explicit undervaluation – not by the audit firms, but instead by the consultancy firms – and decided upon without any liability whatsoever (VIDEO: https://youtu.be/InATbl2wPnw)! The controversy of the reorganization was one way or another confirmed by reputable and impartial experts (VIDEO: https://youtu.be/YjHOP4HMrKY), as well as national authorities: the Court of Auditors, the National Bureau of Investigation, the Human Rights Ombudsman, the National Council of the Republic of Slovenia, and the Constitutional Court, as well as European Court of Human Rights. Last but not least, the Bank of Slovenia and the European Central Bank have shown that they find the matter exceedingly burdensome, as they have, under the veil of bank secrecy, abstained from any explanations and document disclosures, even before the competent law enforcement authorities. While the actors of the wipe-out at the time were handsomely rewarded for their collaboration in the 'heist of the century' (VIDEO: https://youtu.be/XmtwGKxlrbg), with no convictions or due process for anyone within ten years, the agony of the expropriated investors continues indefinitely, which means that “the sour apple no one has been willing to bite through – at least no government or allegedly serious political faction – is rapidly becoming rotten and, in turn, the rot is spreading to the entire basket of apples of the Slovenian investment environment,” commented the VZMD President at this unfortunate 10th anniversary.
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