In Slovenia, the Odlazek family is known as a family of media gurus. However, it is effectively a clan led and controlled by Martin Odlazek. Odlazek’s media, paper processing, and printing empire is so tangled that it would be difficult to discover which company actually controls all the others. But the fact is that it all eventually leads to Martin Odlazek and his family.
Now it is clear that the empire is in serious financial trouble since a little over €19 million of defaulted debts have been transferred to the Bank Asset Management Company (Družba za upravljanje terjatev bank, DUTB). The companies that have ended up at DUTB are Set d. o. o., Papir servis d. o. o., Salomon d. o. o., and Delo TČR d. d. What do they have in common? In one way or another they are owned and controlled by the Odlazek family.
Has Odlazek accumulated his wealth honestly?
Martin Odlazek controls over 20 companies and related companies who own each other. It has gone so far that Krater, who was once the holding company of Odlazek’s empire, now does not have a physical owner, i.e. it owns itself or is the owner of its own subsidiaries. Why is everything so tangled if Odlazek is an honest entrepreneur? Is this entrepreneurship or is someone hiding assets with a tangle of companies in order to cheat creditors?
Odlazek, through various companies that are under his control in one way or another, can now buy his own debt. You wonder why he would buy his own debt? Simple. Because he can offer DUTB €500,000 for €2 million of debt. If he is the highest bidder, he buys the debt, and the difference is covered by the state. In this way, Odlazek would be able to pay only a part of the full debt. The rest would again fall on the shoulders of the taxpayers, who seem to be destined to pay the bills of Slovenian tycoons and leftist governments.