Investigations into a Serbian investment fund that is allegedly popular with senior politicians, businessmen who have prospered from state contracts and others have fueled suspicions of high-level corruption.
https://p.dw.com/p/59upHPeople attended a demonstration in Nis on March 1 marking one year since a major anti-government rally over corruption and accountabilityImage: Djordje Kojadinovic/REUTERSAdvertisementHeadlines in Serbia have been dominated recently by revelations from investigations into an investment fund that many Serbs feel hint at corruption at the very highest level of politics and business.
At the center of the revelations is what is known in Serbia as an Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) called Vista Rica, a Spanish term that roughly translates as "Rich view." The fund in question was set up in 2023.
As reported in 2024 by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), a 2022 change to Serbia's Law on Personal Income Tax allows high-earners to pay up to half of their annual tax obligation into an AIF instead of into the state coffers.
The government says that the aim was to stimulate investment. Critics say it significantly reduces the amount of tax paid by wealthy investors.
But while AIFs are legal, many in Serbia now feel that they — and in particular the Vista Rica case — illustrate how the country's political and business elite benefit disproportionately from the AIF system.
According to a 2025 report by Serbian investigative journalists at the Serbian weekly news magazine Radar, two of the three shareholders in the management company that runs the Vista Rica fund and many of those who invest in it have links to people close to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and his ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).
The journalists say that the list of investors includes not only senior SNS politicians, but also businessmen and companies that have benefited from major state tenders as well as entrepreneurs whose business expansion coincided with the SNS coming to power in 2012.
"The fact that the largest co-owner of the fund — with a 50% stake — is Tatjana Vukic, who is known to be very close to the Vucic brothers, suggests that this may represent the top of the pyramid," investigative journalist Vuk Cvijic of Radar told DW.
"There are suspicions that the fund may be being used for money laundering or tax avoidance," Cvijic went on. "It may also function as an admission ticket for that business circle or even as a kind of 'pension fund' for people in power," he added.
Tatjana Vukic is a senior member of Vucic's ruling Serbian Progressive Party. According to BIRN, she is also the partner of Andrej Vucic, the president's brother.
Another high-ranking official, Vojislav Nedic, holds a 25% stake in the fund's management company. Nedic is the brother of Novak Nedic, long-time secretary-general of the Serbian government, who has repeatedly appeared in media investigations relating to alleged connections with a criminal group currently on trial for murder, drug trafficking and money laundering.
Other investors in the fund reportedly include brothers of President Aleksandar Vucic, Finance Minister Sinisa Mali, and parliamentary speaker and former Prime Minister Ana Brnabic.
The Radar journalists behind the revelations say that other investors include businessmen whose companies expanded rapidly after SNS came to power in 2012, including some businessmen who built their fortunes largely by doing business with the state.
In many cases, their companies secured contracts worth tens — or even hundreds — of millions of euros from the state.
Prointer, for example, won just one public tender in 2012, but secured as many as 150 in the five years that followed, while the construction company Millennium Team has won 62 tenders so far, signing contracts with the state worth nearly €250 million ($289 million).
Both companies were mentioned in the Radar reports.
The journalists say that investors in the Vista Rica fund also include a number of individuals who have faced criminal investigations or are currently involved in court proceedings.
Among them is former handball player Vladimir Mandic, who was previously detained in Montenegro on suspicion of carrying large amounts of cash and attempting to influence elections.
Mandic has also been linked in media reports to networks of loyal SNS activists and strongmen accused of intimidating protesters and voters, particularly in the run-up to elections. Critics say these groups rarely face legal consequences for their actions.
Journalists involved in the investigation say that the variety of people connected to the fund illustrates the breadth of networks that have developed around Serbia's ruling party.
"This is essentially an SNS fund, because the people involved are either in power or tycoons close to the authorities," Cvijic told DW. "And it appears to enjoy protection across almost all state institutions. Police have not acted, and in some cases, investigators were withdrawn from probes. That suggests institutional protection."
While the existence of the fund is nothing new, the story came back into the headlines again recently because of what happened when the Administration for the Prevention of Money Laundering (APML) began looking into it last year.
Speaking to TV Nova in an interview in late February, former APML official Danijela Miletic, said that the internal review started after a bank flagged a suspicious transaction: A private individual attempted to withdraw about €1 million in cash.
"The person was the owner of a company that had, coincidentally, been winning numerous public tenders," Miletic said. "Part of that money was then invested in the Vista Rica fund. After that, we started seeing other individuals following the same pattern."
According to Miletic, the political pressure began soon after the investigation started. Not only was she detained on suspicion of revealing official secrets (no evidence to back up the claim has ever been provided), she also claims she received a call directly from Tatjana Vukic, who threatened to "call Sinisa," in other words, Finance Minister Sinisa Mali, under whose authority the APML operates.
A short time later, Miletic was removed from her position and later dismissed.
Miletic also claims the administration's director threatened her. "He told me: 'Leave this country. You'll see what they will do to you and your child,'" Miletic said.
President Vucic has dismissed criticism of his brother's involvement in the Vista Rica fund, saying that "everyone has the right to save money, including Andrej Vucic."
Financial experts interviewed by DW argue that the problem lies not in the "savings" themselves, but in the legal framework that made such arrangements possible.
Experts are also raising the alarm about the lack of scrutiny of the origin of money invested in such funds.
According to the latest information from Radar, Serbia's Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime has begun examining financial flows linked to some investors in the Vista Rica fund.
Cvijic says that the key question now is whether the investigation can withstand political pressure.
