Headlines in Serbia have been dominated recently by investigations into an investment fund that many see as evidence of corruption at the highest levels of politics and business.
At the center is an Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) called Vista Rica, established in 2023. A 2022 change to Serbia’s Law on Personal Income Tax allowed high earners to pay up to half of their annual tax obligation into an AIF instead of to the state. The government framed the change as a way to stimulate investment; critics say it reduces tax revenue and benefits wealthy investors.
Though AIFs are legal, the Vista Rica case has sparked widespread suspicion that Serbia’s political and business elite are disproportionately profiting from the system. Reporting by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) and Serbia’s weekly Radar has linked the fund’s ownership and investor base to people close to President Aleksandar Vucic and his ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).
Radar’s 2025 investigation reported that two of the three shareholders in the management company running Vista Rica, and many investors, have ties to figures close to Vucic and the SNS. The list of investors reportedly includes senior SNS politicians, businessmen and companies that have won major state tenders, and entrepreneurs whose growth accelerated after the SNS came to power in 2012.
Investigative journalist Vuk Cvijic of Radar said the largest co-owner, with a 50% stake, is Tatjana Vukic, described as close to the Vucic brothers. “There are suspicions that the fund may be being used for money laundering or tax avoidance,” Cvijic said. He added it could act as an admission ticket to a privileged business circle or as a kind of “pension fund” for people in power.
Political links identified in reporting include Tatjana Vukic — a senior SNS member and partner of Andrej Vucic, the president’s brother — and Vojislav Nedic, who holds a 25% stake in the fund’s management company. Vojislav is the brother of Novak Nedic, long-time secretary-general of the Serbian government, who has featured in media investigations over alleged ties to a criminal group on trial for murder, drug trafficking and money laundering. Other investors are said to include the brothers of President Vucic, Finance Minister Sinisa Mali, and parliamentary speaker and former prime minister Ana Brnabic.
Radar’s journalists say some investor names are businessmen whose companies expanded rapidly after 2012, often through state contracts. Examples cited include IT services company Prointer, which reportedly won one public tender in 2012 and about 150 in the following five years, and construction firm Millennium Team, which has been awarded contracts totaling nearly €250 million. The fund’s investor list reportedly also includes people who have faced criminal investigations or court proceedings.
One such figure is former handball player Vladimir Mandic, detained in Montenegro on suspicion of carrying large amounts of cash and attempting to influence elections, and linked in media reports to networks of SNS loyalists accused of intimidating protesters and voters.
Journalists involved in the probes say the spread of people connected to Vista Rica illustrates how extensive SNS-linked networks have become. Cvijic described Vista Rica as “essentially an SNS fund,” saying it appears to enjoy protection across state institutions: police have not acted in some cases and investigators have been withdrawn from probes, he said.
The story resurfaced when Serbia’s Administration for the Prevention of Money Laundering (APML) examined the fund. Former APML official Danijela Miletic told TV Nova that an internal review began after a bank flagged a suspicious transaction: a private individual tried to withdraw about €1 million in cash. The person owned a company that had been winning numerous public tenders, Miletic said, and some of that money was invested in Vista Rica. She said other individuals soon followed the same pattern.
Miletic says political pressure began after the probe started. She was detained on suspicion of revealing official secrets — a charge for which she says no evidence was presented — and claims she received a threatening call from Tatjana Vukic, who allegedly said she would “call Sinisa” (Finance Minister Sinisa Mali, whose ministry oversees APML). Miletic was removed from her role and later dismissed. She also alleges the administration’s director told her: “Leave this country. You’ll see what they will do to you and your child.”
President Vucic has dismissed criticism about his brother’s involvement in Vista Rica, saying “everyone has the right to save money, including Andrej Vucic.” Financial experts interviewed by DW say the problem is not savings per se but the legal framework that enables such arrangements and the weak scrutiny of the origin of funds invested in AIFs.
According to Radar, Serbia’s Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime has begun examining financial flows linked to some Vista Rica investors. The central question, commentators say, is whether any investigation can withstand political pressure and carry out thorough scrutiny of where the money came from and whether laws on money laundering and tax were breached.
Edited by: Aingeal Flanagan
