NEW: Leaked documents finally reveal the identity of the owner of an offshore company that transferred 780,000 euros to one of the assassins of Croatian journalist Ivo Pukanić — just three weeks before his murder.

A #CyprusConfidential investigation:

occrp.org/en/cyprus-conf…

Pukanić was killed in 2008 when a motorbike packed with explosives detonated next to his car outside the magazine he co-founded.

He had many enemies, having produced major investigative stories about powerful figures in several Balkan countries.

occrp.org/en/investigati…

Two years later, a Croatian court convicted six men of his murder, including Slobodan Ðurović, known as the right-hand man to notorious crime figure Joca Amsterdam.

Courts called Ðurović a “key middleman” in organizing Pukanić’s murder.

Prosecutors alleged that a mysterious 780,000-euro transfer into Ðurović’s personal bank account from an offshore company three weeks before the assassination was used to pay some of the assassins.

But the money trail seemed to end there.

Until now.

Using leaked documents from the #CyprusConfidential files, reporters from OCCRP’s partners KRIK in Serbia & birdbg in Bulgaria managed to identify the owner of the British Virgin Islands company that made the 780,000-euro payment: a Bulgarian businessman named Ognian Bozarov

🇧🇬Little is known about Bozarov, who is 76. Among the few public references to him is a 2011 book that says Bozarov worked for the Communist-era intelligence service during the dictatorship of Todor Zhivkov.

Journalists found no direct evidence that Bozarov ordered or played a role in the assassination of Pukanić.

The leaked documents — plus information from corporate documents and court records — do give insights into Ðurović’s business dealings with Bozarov before the killing.