ZAGREB, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Zagreb County Court set on Thursday a 7.5 million kuna (about 1.14 million U.S. dollars) bail for Ivica Todoric, former owner and founder of Croatia's food and retail group Agrokor.
The business tycoon and 14 former managers of Agrokor are suspected of illegal withdrawal of more than 150 million U.S. dollars from the biggest private company in the region. Todoric was arrested in London in 2017 and extradited to Croatia on Nov. 7.
The latest court ruling in Zagreb is in contrary to an earlier decision by an investigation judge who has rejected Todoric's lawyers appeal for release last week because of the concern of his fleeing attempt. The court spokesperson Kreismir Devcic told reporters on Thursday that a bail could serve the same purpose as an investigative detention, and that the suspect must hand over his passport and remain in Zagreb during the investigation.
When Tododic was arrested in London in November 2017, he paid 100,000 pounds (around 130,000 U.S. dollars) in bail. His lawyer said on Thursday that the latest bail might be a problem for his client, especially since the court has ordered that it should be paid in cash.
"At the moment he doesn't have that money. I don't know how he will finance this, but it could be a problem. We were hoping that we could use some real estate property to bridge this problem, and we made some moves in that sense, but this amount will be difficult to collect," Cedo Prodanovic, Ivica Todoric's lawyer, told reporters in front of the court, N1 television reported.
Agrokor is the largest private company and the biggest food and retail group in the Balkan region. After a debt crisis hit the company in 2017, the Croatian government took control of the company and a state-appointed manager led a process that finished with a debt settlement with Agrokor's creditors.
