Police Search Unicredit Bank Over Vojvode Stepe Mortgage
Interior Ministry officers entered a Unicredit Bank office on an order from the Belgrade prosecutor's office and are seizing mortgage records in a case that could see Vojvode Stepe residents evicted.
Officers from the Interior Ministry’s Anti-Corruption Service entered a Unicredit Bank office in Belgrade today, September 2. They are carrying out the search on an order from the Belgrade Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office, and the material being seized is documentation on a mortgage the bank placed on a residential building on Vojvode Stepe Street.
Disputed mortgage on the Vojvode Stepe building
The case goes back several years. Unicredit Bank financed construction of the building, while the apartments were sold to buyers by the developer, “011 Plus” LLC Belgrade. As security for its loan, the bank placed a mortgage on the property. According to the criminal complaint filed by the residents, they paid the developer in full for their apartments, but the developer remained in debt to the bank that had financed the construction.
When the bank’s debt went unpaid, an enforcement proceeding followed to collect on the mortgage. That left residents facing the loss of their apartments, even though they say they paid the full purchase price to the seller. It is precisely that gap, between what they paid and what the bank is now claiming, that led a group of residents to file a criminal complaint against bank employees, a lawyer and a court enforcement officer.
Who is named in the criminal complaint?
The complaint reportedly names a lawyer identified by the initials M.V., to whom the claim was allegedly transferred from the bank, and a court enforcement officer identified by the initials M.D., who is carrying out the enforcement proceeding. Prosecutors are now examining three questions: how the mortgage on the building was established in the first place, on what basis the claim was transferred from the bank to the lawyer, and on what basis the enforcement proceeding itself was opened.
Police are gathering that evidence on the ground, inside the bank itself, where they are seizing business records tied to the property in question. Based on the material collected, prosecutors will assess whether the conduct of the bank, the lawyer and the enforcement officer contains elements of a criminal offense, and who might ultimately bear responsibility for it.
No criminal proceeding has so far been announced against anyone, nor has anyone been named a suspect. This is a pre-investigative inquiry, opened on a complaint from the injured party itself, the residents of the building on Vojvode Stepe Street, who fear that despite paying in full they could still lose their apartments over a debt they say they never incurred.
