Batocina: Eight Arrested Over 5.1 Million Dinar VAT Fraud

Eight people were arrested on suspicion of defrauding the state of 5,148,340 dinars through a chain of shell companies registered in Batocina, Serbia’s Interior Ministry (MUP) announced on September 8, 2026. The suspects are charged with tax fraud tied to value added tax and with forging an official document.

The operation was carried out by officers from the Criminal Police Directorate, the Service for Combating Organized Crime, and the Department for Combating Economic Crime, working alongside police from the Kragujevac Police Directorate and the Tax Police’s Department for Operational Actions, Kragujevac Section. It was carried out on the order of the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Kragujevac.

Who is suspected

MUP names A. C. (36), of Batocina, as the person who, according to the suspicion, actually ran the business of “Tradition food tt 2024” d.o.o. Batocina, even though he was not formally its owner or legal representative. Seven other people were arrested alongside him:

• S. N. (32)
• D. M. (35)
• A. T. (23)
• N. N. (23)
• M. S. (23)
• N. T. (22)
• A. M. (21)

According to MUP, these seven formally founded and registered companies in their own names and made their business records and bank accounts available. This, investigators suspect, is what allowed A. C. to effectively control the companies while formally staying outside their ownership structure.

“They are suspected of formally founding and registering companies in their own names, and making their business records and accounts available.”

That is how the Interior Ministry described the role of the seven arrested individuals in its statement, while identifying A. C. as the one who actually ran the companies’ operations.

How the fraud allegedly worked

According to the prosecution’s suspicion, A. C. used false, or fictitious, invoices and other business documentation to unlawfully claim a tax credit based on value added tax. Over the 12 months preceding the arrests, this allegedly cost Serbia’s state budget 5,148,340 dinars, MUP said.

The suspects are further accused of drawing up and using business documentation containing false information, presented as genuine, while documenting their business dealings. Police say this conduct meets the elements of the criminal offense of forging an official document.

All eight have been ordered held for up to 48 hours. Once that period expires, they will be brought before the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Kragujevac along with a criminal complaint, which will decide on further proceedings, including a possible motion for pretrial detention. The suspects are presumed innocent until the proceedings are finally concluded.