Vice Zaev, the brother of SDSM leader Zoran Zaev, denied media reports that a company caught smuggling designer clothing brands into Macedonia, is linked to his business empire.
A truck carrying goods by a company named Vineks Textile from Strumica was stopped near Skopje. The truck was full with designer clothing for which no customs was paid. Infomax reported that the drivers of the truck were employed by Sakaov Trans from Strumica.
Both companies were named as linked to the Zaev family by the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party, which revealed a tax evasion scheme involving them before the July elections. In fact, here is what the DPNE said few months ago:
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During a press conference, DPNE spokesman Naum Stoilkovski presented details about several little known companies from Strumica, the stronghold of SDSM party leader Zoran Zaev, who have collected astronomical sums in tax rebates. In the first five months of the year, these companies have received over 5,000,000 EUR in value added tax returns, which far surpasses the amount received by major Macedonian companies.
The companies are Arena Metal, Dzoks Premium, Netkom Plus, Vinas Tekstil and Sakaov Trans. They received 5,212 million EUR in tax returns. It would require that they exported goods worth 25 million EUR to receive these sums of money. All the companies are linked in their ownership structure. We ask the tax authority to immediately inspect them. We also ask it to determine whether they are linked to businessman Risto Krmzov, the man who owns the Vila Park hotel, the favorite gathering place of the Zaev family where businessmen are urged to come and pay their extortion money, Stoilkovski said.
Zaev’s friend Risto Krmzov and the companies listed above are the very companies who took millions of euros in loans from Eurostandard Bank before it was forced to default.