The Osijek branch of the USKOK anti-corruption office has rejected a criminal report filed against Virovitica Mayor Ivica Kirin, Sanja Kirin, and Vesna Grbac in a case concerning the disappearance of 17 million kuna from the town budget.

The three were suspected of involvement in siphoning money from the town coffers and of inadequate supervision of the work of the head of the town department for finance and economy, Sinisa Palm.

In what is considered one of the bigger financial scandals in Croatia, money disappeared from the town budget for almost three years without anyone noticing. Three days after the scandal broke, in June 2019, police found Palm’s body in a local forest, saying that he had committed suicide. No autopsy was performed.

Kirin claimed at the time that Palm was a gambling addict who killed himself because he could see no other way out of his problems.

USKOK said that even though Kirin was responsible for the legal management of the town money and the State Audit Office was obliged to control the lawfulness of the town’s financial operations, its findings did not indicate that anyone except for Palm could have been involved in any way in the embezzlement of the town money or in covering it up.