The late Bosnian tycoon Slobodan Stankovic and his engineering company have been removed from the U.S. blacklist of sanctioned individuals.
Stankovic and his company, Integral Inzenjering A.D. Laktasi (Integral), had been designated for sanctions in October 2022 for materially aiding, sponsoring, or providing financial, material, or technological support to Milorad Dodik, the Russian-friendly leader of Bosnia-Herzegovina's ethnic Serb entity, Republika Srpska.
The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on April 12 lifted the sanctions against Stankovic and his company without commenting.
Stankovic died in February at age 74 in Banja Luka.
The Treasury Department said when it imposed the sanctions that major construction projects were often handed to Stankovic's firm without fair and open competition and that the vast majority of Stankovic's wealth came from public money.
In addition to its offices in Banja Luka, Integral also has branches in Serbia and Croatia.
One of the last projects Stankovic was involved in as a contractor is the construction of a 20-kilometer-long section of the highway in northeastern Bosnia leading to the border with Serbia. The cost of the project is estimated at 154.4 million euros ($164 million).
Integral also carried out work on the construction of an interstate bridge between Croatia and Bosnia with two other companies.
In addition, his company was awarded a job worth about 35 million euros for the construction of a highway in Croatia that will connect a bridge on the Sava River with the Zagreb-Belgrade highway.
Stankovic is also the former owner of Alternative Television Banja Luka (ATV), a media company that was previously blacklisted by the United States. The U.S. Treasury Department said ATV showed a bias toward Dodik, and the purchase showed the reciprocal nature of Dodik's corrupt relations.
In January 2023, Dodik awarded Stankovic the Order of the Flag of the Republika Srpska on Republika Srpska Day, which has been declared unconstitutional by Bosnia's Constitutional Court.