USKOK indicts former Zagreb Hipodrom director

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The news in Croatian

1. optužiti
   reći ili tvrditi da je netko počinio kazneno djelo ili nešto loše ↩︎
2. prijevara  (f.)
   namjerno varanje nekoga da bi se dobila korist, najčešće novac ↩︎
3. hipodrom  (m.)
   veliko otvoreno mjesto gdje se održavaju konjske utrke ↩︎
4. zaštitarski
   koji se odnosi na zaštitare, osobe koje profesionalno čuvaju ljude ili imovinu ↩︎
5. istražitelj  (m.)
   osoba koja službeno istražuje kaznena djela i skuplja dokaze ↩︎
6. slučaj  (m.)
   određena situacija ili događaj o kojem se govori ili koji se istražuje ↩︎

Translation

Text comprehension

Question 1: What did the former director and the security company managers allegedly do to get a lot of money?

Question 2: What was supposed to happen to the two employees who spoke with the investigators?

Vocabulary

Croatian	English
optužiti	to accuse
prijevara  (f.)	fraud
hipodrom  (m.)	racecourse
zaštitarski	security (related to security guards)
istražitelj  (m.)	investigator
slučaj  (m.)	case

Read the full story

Croatia’s anti-corruption office USKOK has filed an indictment against five Croatian citizens and one company in the so‑called Hipodrom affair, a case involving alleged fraud with security services at Hipodrom Zagreb, the city’s main horse-racing and riding complex.

The indicted individuals are former head of the city institution Upravljanje sportskim objektima (USO, the City of Zagreb body in charge of managing sports facilities) Kosta Kostanjević; security company managers Slavko and Domagoj Galić; Goran Đulić, president of the USO Management Council; and Jagoda Bončina Franjković, acting director at USO. One unnamed security company is also charged as a legal entity.

According to USKOK, the investigation began on 30 April 2025 against three suspects and was later expanded in July and November 2025 to include two more people and the company. The indictment, submitted to the County Court in Zagreb, alleges several crimes: abuse of office and authority, aiding abuse of office, forgery of official or business documents within a criminal organisation, and trading in influence, as well as an attempted abuse of office.

USKOK claims that, between 22 November 2023 and the end of November 2024, Kostanjević as USO director and the Galićs as managers in the contracted security firm acted together to obtain a large amount of unlawful financial gain. After a public procurement process, the City of Zagreb signed a framework agreement in April 2023 for private security at facilities managed by USO, including Hipodrom Zagreb. The contract reportedly foresaw 35,240 working hours of security guards over two years for the Hipodrom site.

Investigators state that the security firm then issued repeated invoices to USO for Hipodrom security, marked as work connected with evictions (deložacije), a type of service not covered by the tender. In these invoices the number of guard hours was allegedly inflated and did not correspond to work actually performed. Between November 2023 and August 2024, USO allegedly received invoices totalling €1,800,135.45, which recorded 242,436 working hours for eviction-related tasks.

According to the indictment, a manager in the security company prepared time records that contained false data on working hours and attached them to the invoices. USKOK asserts that Kostanjević, as USO director, ordered the payment of these invoices even though he allegedly knew that the services were not covered by the public procurement contract, that the number of hours did not match reality, and that proper documentation proving the work done was missing. He is also accused of ensuring that USO did not carry out any effective control of the services.

From these alleged activities, USKOK calculates that the security company gained an unlawful benefit of about €1.35 million, while approximately €450,000 was allegedly handed over in cash to Kostanjević. Part of the money was supposedly withdrawn directly from the company’s account, and part was transferred through other companies before being paid out.

The indictment further includes accusations involving Goran Đulić and Jagoda Bončina Franjković in the period 16 June to 2 July 2025. At that time, Kostanjević had already been under investigation, placed in and then released after he resigned as USO director. Media reports note that Đulić is a prominent figure in Zagreb city politics and has held several roles linked to sport in the city, while Bončina Franjković is a long‑time USO employee who took over as acting director after Kostanjević’s arrest.

USKOK alleges that Đulić, as president of the USO Management Council, and Bončina Franjković, as acting director, attempted to degrade two USO employees who had given statements and testimony in the criminal case. The indictment claims that Đulić asked Bončina Franjković to use a new internal job classification rulebook to move these employees to lower‑ranked and lower‑paid positions because of what they had told investigators about Kostanjević. At the same time, he allegedly urged that Kostanjević, after his resignation, be placed in a better‑paid position within USO, regardless of the institution’s real needs.

In line with this alleged request, Bončina Franjković is said to have offered the two employees contracts for lower‑graded jobs, which they refused to sign. She reportedly also asked another manager to accept a lower position so that Kostanjević could be appointed head of that sector. According to USKOK, this change was not completed because prosecutors requested documentation on Kostanjević’s employment status, which interrupted the process.

Some Croatian media highlight that the case touches on people considered close associates of Zagreb mayor Tomislav Tomašević, especially Đulić, who is an active member of the political platform Možemo!. For this reason, the affair is being followed not only as a corruption case, but also as a test of the city administration’s handling of alleged wrongdoing in public institutions. However, at this stage, no court has ruled on the merits of the accusations.

Earlier in the investigation, Croatian outlets reported that Slavko and Domagoj Galić were released from detention in May after admitting their role in the alleged extraction and division of money with Kostanjević, while Kostanjević himself left detention in June after his resignation and the questioning of witnesses. These elements are part of the prosecution file but will be evaluated during the trial.

Under Croatian law, all the accused enjoy the presumption of innocence until a final court judgment. The indicted individuals and the involved company have the right to respond to the charges, present evidence and appeal decisions. At the time of writing, detailed public responses from the defence sides are not included in the published material, and the case is expected to move forward through the Croatian court system in the coming period.

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