VZMD directed a further protest to the Securities Market Agency (ATVP) against the inadmissible regulatory pressure and pretend ignorance of the ATVP director. This is a response to the ATVP director Anka Čadež's letter from January with which she responded to the previous open call and protest of VZMD against the harsh and inadmissible pressure on the civil society organization of minority shareholders. After carefully examining the director's response, VZMD reached the conclusion that as far as the key question is concerned – the problematic actions of the Slovene financial market intermediaries – her response was entirely vague and did not provide any specific explanation whatsoever; as far as her specific explanations are concerned, i.e. regarding the ATVP actions against VZMD, they have been, unfortunately, misleading and explicitly inconsistent with the actual situation.
In this letter, the VZMD President, Mr. Kristjan Verbič, "protested against the further pretend ignorance of ATVP which is expressed as a complete ignorance of the problematic actions of the financial intermediaries and as a deceptive portrayal of the actions and efforts of VZMD. We insist that ATVP establishes procedures and policies for equal treatment of all parties in the securities market instead of continuing with the scandalous double standard policy." He also noted, regretfully, that "VZMD has no desire for a public conflict with the regulator who has a nearly 'papal', unlimited power and means, and can completely block the civil society association of minority shareholders, i.e. 'Share SUPPORT' and VZMD in general, but we cannot simply remain silent in light of ATVP's unfounded pressure, actions and especially failure to act," and summarized seven specific facts and cases of pretend ignorance.
He pointed out ATVP's apparent distancing from amendments and attempts to amend the Market in Financial Instruments Act directed exclusively against the civil society association and representation of minority shareholders (VIDEO), despite the fact that ATVP has demonstrably acted as a great advocate and even the protagonist of such adverse amendments (VIDEO).
He also pointed out the ignorant attitude toward the supervisory passivity with regard to the collapse of the brokerage company MOJA DELNICA d.d., which was under the supervision of ATVP and for which Ms. Čadež admitted that the individual shareholders will have to assert their claims during the insolvency proceedings. Similarly, she also ignored the supervisory passivity of ATVP with regard to the questionable actions of the brokerage company ILIRIKA d.d. which, under the nose of ATVP, entirely shamelessly keeps on mixing the assets of their clients with the assets of their owners.
The VZMD President also pointed out the inadmissible claims (ahead of the final conclusion of any proceedings) that VZMD is allegedly providing services that require ATVP's permission, and using random articles (on the behest of the financial industry?) to insinuate that VZMD is overcharging their services.
Equally eloquent is the complete silence of ATVP with regard to the final judicial dismissal of all charges initiated, prosecuted and publicly promoted by ATVP, along with the persecution of Mr. Verbič, without any apology, retraction, or at least a modicum of self-reflection. ATVP is not even appropriate enough to retract its post in which it singularly and publicly welcomed the preliminary ruling against Mr. Verbič during one of the phases of the 12-year judicial proceedings (VIDEO).
Also unheard of are the claims that ATVP is acting against VZMD to protect the minority shareholders because VZMD allegedly did not offer appropriate protection of their rights regarding the securities, whereby ATVP concealed that it was actually them who have been preventing VZMD from opening a trust (fiduciary) account for securities, which would enable VZMD – without engaging attorneys and other professional trusties at significantly higher costs – to separate the assets of minority shareholders and other investors from their own. "How is it possible that as the current ATVP director you (inaccurately) accuse VZMD that it cannot do that – even though VZMD is demonstrably capable of that by engaging attorneys and other professional stakeholders at higher costs – but it was you who years ago signed the ATVP opinion which prevented VZMD from directly opening a trust account for securities(?!)," asked Mr. Verbič in his reply. To make the pretend ignorance even more obvious, VZMD added that all this time they have had an open fiduciary cash account at Slovene banks on behalf of the minority shareholders, which enabled them to efficiently separate the assets and protect everyone who trusts them (more than 7,000 minority shareholders in last 5 years). The fact that the fiduciary cash account has been open all this time – while ATVP is actively preventing VZMD from opening a fiduciary securities account and is even publicly 'warning' against the operation of VZMD while keeping quiet about the actually questionable actions of their 'favorite' financial intermediaries (VIDEO) – means that there is no systemic reason for ATVP's actions.
"Is this perhaps malice and arrogance, because VZMD is probably doing its job of protecting the rights and interests of minority shareholders better than ATVP itself who are getting richly paid from the public funds – of course unlike VZMD who receives no public funds (?!)," wondered Mr. Verbič and once again appealed to the ATVP director to "self-examine the efficiency of use of the ATVP resources financed with public funds, think honestly on [her] role and the role of ATVP: is it really the prevention of civil society association and representation of minority shareholders or is it perhaps the protection of the rights of these shareholders against those in a definitively stronger position, who abused their 'professional' and 'privileged' position, that is against the majority shareholders and financial intermediaries?!"
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