Zvonko Veselinovic Leaves Bosnia for Istanbul
The businessman from northern Kosovo, sanctioned by the US and UK, left on a scheduled flight from Sarajevo using a Serbian passport. The reason for his departure is not known.
Zvonko Veselinovic, a businessman from northern Kosovo who is under US and UK sanctions, left Bosnia and Herzegovina early on November 11, 2026. He flew from Sarajevo to Istanbul on a regular passenger flight, using a Serbian passport.
KRIK was the first to report it, in a story by Stevan Dojcinovic and Bojana Jovanovic. Radio Free Europe (RSE) says the departure was confirmed by security sources in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that Veselinovic traveled with his brother Zarko, who is also under US sanctions. For now that claim rests with RSE alone, as KRIK does not mention the brother.
What is known about Zvonko Veselinovic’s departure?
The reason he left Serbia and went to Turkey is not known. According to available information, Veselinovic currently faces no criminal proceedings in Serbia.
He left 17 days after the parliamentary elections of October 25. The new government has not yet been formed, but police and prosecutors have begun making arrests for a range of criminal offenses. KRIK writes that Veselinovic traveled in the middle of a wave of arrests of businessmen and officials who held a privileged position under Aleksandar Vucic and the Serbian Progressive Party.
The sanctions and suspicions that follow him
The US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on him at the end of 2021, over suspicions that he bribed politicians to run illegal businesses. The United Kingdom followed in 2022.
The gravest suspicion is involvement in the January 2018 murder of Kosovo politician Oliver Ivanovic. Kosovo prosecutors say Milan Radoicic also took part in the killing. For Veselinovic this is a suspicion, not an established guilt.
Police and security service reports that KRIK published earlier describe him as one of the key Serbian criminals in Kosovo, working closely with the Albanian mafia. They also say his group is involved in smuggling drugs, weapons and oil, in loan sharking and in money laundering.
In Serbia, Veselinovic has been accused several times of drug smuggling, truck theft and illegal sand extraction. Most of those proceedings ended in acquittals.
The messages KRIK published two years ago
KRIK claims Veselinovic was close to Andrej Vucic, the brother of the former president, and that his construction company won millions of euros on state projects. According to KRIK, this shows in the “Sky” messages the outlet published two years ago. One criminal from a rival group described Veselinovic’s appetite in them this way:
“Brother, you know what millions he takes. And it’s still too little for him.”
According to the same messages, in 2020 Veselinovic opposed Veselin Milic, then head of the Criminal Police Directorate, becoming police director. Milic is now charged with failing to report a murder.
Why Turkey?
KRIK notes that over the past five years Turkey has become one of the key countries where members of Balkan criminal groups hide. Jovan Vukotic and Sani Al-Murda, key figures of the Skaljar clan, were also reported to have hidden there.
