The United States has imposed sanctions on two adult children of Bosnian Serb nationalist leader Milorad Dodik and four businesses owned by his family that the U.S. Treasury Department says have helped Dodik “enrich himself and his family at the expense of [Bosnian] citizens and functional governance in the country.”
The department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said on October 20 that Dodik’s adult children -- Igor Dodik and Gorica Dodik -- and the four Republika Srpska-based businesses “form a core part” of Dodik’s “patronage network,” which it said has facilitated Dodik’s “ongoing corruption.”
“With the financial and political support of the individuals and entities designated today, Dodik has engaged in corruption that ensures his personal financial and political stability at the expense of [Bosnia-Herzegovina] citizens living in Republika Srpska,” said Treasury Undersecretary Brian E. Nelson in a news release.
The U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo said Igor Dodik and Gorica Dodik "are a core part of Milorad Dodik’s patronage network and facilitate his corruption." In a message on X, formerly Twitter, the embassy said the two "have siphoned public funds from the [Republika Srpska] and its citizens to enrich themselves."
The businesses -- named by OFAC as Global Liberty, Agro Voce, Agape, and Gradiska -- are a collection of commercial entities, including operations in the restaurant and wholesale materials sectors. All receive public assistance from Republika Srpska "through preferential treatment as a result of being owned by Dodik's family," OFAC said.
Dodik previously served as a member of Bosnia’s presidency and is widely known for openly calling for the unilateral transfer of state competencies from the government of Bosnia to Republika Srpska, one of two entities that comprise Bosnia.
“Dodik has used his official [Bosnian] position and a network of personal ties and companies to accumulate personal wealth through graft, bribery, and other forms of corruption,” OFAC said in the news release. “His divisive ethno-nationalistic rhetoric reflects his efforts to advance these political goals and divert attention from his corrupt activities.”
Dodik himself has already been designated for U.S. sanctions. These were announced in January last year and in July 2017, each time for violating the implementation of the Dayton peace agreement that ended three years of intense fighting in 1995.
More recently, Dodik sponsored the passage of a law in the Republika Srpska National Assembly that aims to declare the decisions of the Constitutional Court inapplicable in Republika Srpska. Dodik signed the law into effect on July 7 despite international overseer Christian Schmidt’s move to annul the law. The highest judicial body in Bosnia subsequently indicted Dodik for ignoring these decisions.
As the international envoy, Schmidt has vast powers under the Dayton agreement, including the power to fire officials and to impose laws.
The sanctions freeze any assets held in U.S. jurisdiction by the individuals or the businesses and bar people in the United States from dealing with them.