From Luxembourg prison to the collapse of GSPartners: How Josip Heit built a multi-billion-dollar financial fraud empire
Croatian media report that a stalled hydroelectric power plant project has been linked to Sasa Svalina and his brother-in-law, Josip Heit, amid growing controversy surrounding the case.
Heit is currently managing a complicated process of refunds after allegations of securities fraud tied to a multi-billion-dollar “fraudulent investment scheme”.
Dusan Miljus of Jutarnji. Among other things, Miljus examines Heit’s life prior to his involvement in Karatbars International.
Notably, Miljus reports Heit was previously sentenced to prison in Luxembourg for financial fraud.
Citing “reliable sources”, Jurarnji reports;
After he was released from prison in Luxembourg in 2012, where he was serving a sentence also for financial fraud, Heit took on a new identity in Croatia.
He borrowed money, some of which he still owes today, and he continued to present himself as a successful businessman.
[Heit] made an impression, drove a Bugatti, and the relatives of his ex-wife, a German born in Russia, “pumped up” his capital.
Namely, her uncle Andrej Labudzko, whose brother is Viktor, who buys weapons for the Russian army and is a man trust by Putin. Heit even brought them to Una ten years ago.
There’s a lot to unpack there. First, details of Heit’s fraud leading up to his prison sentence in Luxembourg remain unclear.
Prior to his financial fraud prison sentence, Heit stopped his studies and in 1998 started his first company for tourism and luxury services, i.e. leasing and charter boats in Croatia.
I want to point out, while seemingly being funded by a Russian arms dealer, when Russia invaded Ukraine Heit used donations to Ukraine as a GSPartners marketing tool.
cites Heit as a Karatbars International co-founder.
Founded in 2011 by the German, Harald Seiz, and co-founders Josip Heit, Alex Bodi (later jailed for organised crime) and Ovidiu Toma.
Sasa Svalina was also involved in Karatbars International, making an appearance in at least one marketing video with Heit.
collapsed in mid 2019.
GSPartners and multiple related companies through GSB Group.
By its own admission, GSPartners claims to have solicited a billion dollars in investment from “over 800,000 investors”.
Following an avalanche of regulatory fraud warnings from around the world, GSPartners collapsed in December 2023. The majority of GSPartners investors are believed to be North American residents.
As part of a settlement reached with US regulators earlier this month, that will see “GSB Group and Mr. Heit … consent to the entry of an enforcement order that concludes they illegally offered and/or sold securities”, US and Canadian investors are hoping to get their money back.
Pending further action, be it at the federal level in the US or civil and/or criminal fraud charges filed in other countries, funds invested by GSPartners participants outside of North America remain unaccounted for.