In the week of January 9, the Office of the State Prosecutor General indicted the leaders of an illegal football betting syndicate that operated from Maribor. The clients of this ring included a number of high-profile football players including several current or former members of the Slovenian national team, Slovenian newspapers report.
The prosecutors collected evidence that the six-man syndicate handled over €42 million worth of illegal bets between November 2008 and April 2011. The presumed ring-leaders were Kosta Turner (48) and Ivan Vinko (41), both Slovenian citizens. They were aided by Vasja Turner (29), Zvonko Hajšek (43), Goran Šukalo (30), all Slovenian citizens, and Saša Simić (42), a former football player and citizen of Serbia. Police took four of them into custody in April 2011; still at large are Mr. Šukalo, who currently plays for MSV Duisburg in the Second Bundesliga, and Mr. Simić.
All six are charged with organizing money chains and illegal gambling (Art. 212 of the Penal Code), and criminal association (Art. 294 of the Penal Code). The preliminary hearing at the Maribor District Court was conducted on 12 January and the indictment is now final. The court ruled that Mr. Simić will be tried in a separate trial.
Gambling and bookmaking is legal in Slovenia, but bookmakers wishing to organize betting must obtain a state license.
Slovenian media published details of the way the syndicate operated. Vasja Turner is assumed to be the main bookkeeper. Goran Šukalo was allegedly the intermediary between Kosta Turner and the betting players; he supposedly picked up bets and forwarded the information to the organizers, as well as controlled the cash flow to and from the players. Sašo Simić is thought to be the syndicate’s representative in Serbia as well as a debt collector. The role of Zvonko Hajšek was allegedly to secure financial funds to cover limits with foreign bookmakers and to recruit new players.
According to the State Prosecutor General’s indictment, the list of players that placed bets with the illegal bookmaker includes Nastja Čeh, Ermin Rakovič, Dejan Djuranovič, Rene Mihelič, and Grega Židan. All of them have national team experience.
The list of clients includes 16 additional individuals; three have been identified by their full names.
The participants placed a total of €42,796,277.00 worth of bets. €5.5 million were allegedly handled by Mr. Šukalo.
Prosecutors were able to collect very detailed information from the website used by the syndicate to record all bets. The website, www.w3v0id.net, is now inaccessible.
Ekipa, a sports daily newspaper, published details regarding the sums that had allegedly been placed as bets by the participants of the scheme:
Nastja Čeh: €2,539,800.00
Dejan Djuranovič: €87,400.00
Tadej Kovačič: €542,202.00
Dean Medved: €208,750.00
Rene Mihelič: €26,550,00
Ermin Rakovič: €724,000.00
Sebastijan Simonič: €37,700.00
Goran Šukalo: €5,500,000.00
Gregor Židan: €512,590.00
“AHM:” €376,193.00
“Amer:” €387,470.00
“Baco:” €70,950.00
“CZ:” €18,544,359.00
“CZ-A:” €10,474,300.00
“CZ-S:” €55,000.00
“Gogi:” €336,747.00
“Grega:” €50.00
“Lucky:” €259,000.00
“MIAUT:” €40,000.00
“TT:” €397,000.00
“ZAUT:” €84,000.00
“ZV:” €84,000.00