US embassy cable - 05LJUBLJANA483

UNCLAS LJUBLJANA 000483 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/NCE, INL/C/CJ, EUR/PPD, ECA/A/E/ERU, 
ECA/PE/C/EUR, IIP/G/EUR 
BUDAPEST FOR ILEA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, SOCI, PINR, KPAO, SI 
SUBJECT: SLOVENIA: NEW GENERAL PROSECUTOR LOOKING AT WHITE 
COLLAR CRIME AND SEEKING USG ASSISTANCE 
 
 
 1. (SBU)  Summary.  COM met July 7 with Barbara Brezigar, 
recently appointed General State Prosecutor for Slovenia. 
Brezigar, just back from Eurojust in Brussels is focused on 
combating white-collar crime and is interested in cooperating 
with the USG to build prosecutorial capacity in Slovenia. 
Brezigar enjoys a reputation as a tough prosecutor and honest 
broker.  She ran for President in 2002 and lost to current 
President Janez Drnovsek in a closely contested run-off 
ballot.  She is considered one of PM Jansa's best 
appointments to date. Brezigar's decision to focus on 
white-collar and financial crime may bring to a close an era 
of insider dealing and trading that has existed since 
Slovenia's independence. Her greatest challenge will be to 
get the legal, financial and economic training and experience 
necessary for the prosecutors to do their jobs effectively. 
End Summary. 
 
2. (SBU) COM accompanied by DCM, Pol/Econ Chief and PAO, 
called on Brezigar and her Deputy, Mirko Vrtacnik, and Silvi 
Sinkovic, director for training, July 7.  After Jansa's win 
in October 2004 and the political changes that swept through 
the GoS, it was widely expected that Brezigar would return 
from Eurojust, where she has been Slovenia's representative 
for just under one year. Prior to her appointment to 
Eurojust, Brezigar had been a Supreme State Prosecutor for 
two years, and also had a brief stint as Minister of Justice 
in 2000 during the government of current Finance Minister 
Andrej Bajuk.  Her appointment as Slovenia's top national 
prosecutor, a six year appointment, is a bold move by Jansa, 
and Brezigar's decision to focus on white-collar and 
financial crime may bring to a close an era of insider 
dealing and trading that has benefited only an elite slice of 
society since Slovenia's independence. 
 
3. (SBU) In her discussion with COM, Brezigar describe a 
serious lack of knowledge and capacity for prosecuting 
white-collar crime saying that her prosecutors do not know 
what to look for, let alone how to guide the police in its 
investigations.  Despite some differences in criminal justice 
systems, Brezigar is very eager to draw on US expertise, 
particularly in the case-study format and asked COM for ideas 
on how to make this happen. 
 
4. (SBU) Comment. Post is eager to assist Brezigar in 
building prosecutorial capacity in Slovenia and is exploring 
various options.  We hope to draw on the resources and 
expertise of ECA, INL, DoJ and ILEA Budapest.  The Office of 
the Prosecutor employs 170 prosecutors and 40 support staff. 
Training would be directed at a subset of this group that 
specializes in economic crime.  The core group would share 
its knowledge more widely amongst prosecutorial colleagues to 
increase the impact of training.  The overall package we 
envision would build links with U.S. counterparts and provide 
training for prosecutors.  By September, we would like to 
have established contact between the higher levels of 
Brezigar,s office and their U.S. counterparts, possibly 
through a Digital Video Conference.  Following this, we 
propose sending one or more senior prosecutors on a Voluntary 
Visitor program that would include meetings both with 
practitioners and with academicians.  Meetings with 
academicians are particularly important for their analysis of 
well-known economic crime case studies, such as insider 
trading and other US corruption cases e.g., Enron, Tyco, etc. 
 Longer term linkages would also be part of our strategy of 
assistance.  As ECA prepares themes for upcoming Citizen 
Exchange linkages, we request that economic crime and 
corruption be included for Slovenia, either alone or as part 
of a regional proposal.  We will submit specific proposals 
for each program in separate messages. End Comment. 
ROBERTSON 
 
 
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 2005LJUBLJ00483 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED 


 
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