CLEVELAND – The ex-wife of a reputed Mecedonian crime kingpin charged in the massive fraud that sunk St. Paul Croatian FCU last year has agreed to testify against her husband and forfeit $850,000 in Macedonian bank accounts as part of a plea deal negotiated with federal prosecutors.
Under the deal, Rose Ann Nikolovski, 49, will plead guilty to two criminal counts in connection with the $70 million fraud and forfeit $851,000 in bank accounts she co-signed with her former husband Koljo Nikolovski in Komercijalna Banka and Capital Bank in Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, according to sources with the U.S. Attorneys Office. She will also forfeit a 2003 BWI valued at almost $13,000.
She is expected to avoid jail time and be sentenced to probation at her Jan. 31 sentencing, in exchange for her cooperation in the case.
Koljo Nikolovski, who authorities say is head of an international crime syndicate based in Skopje, is jailed in Cleveland and awaiting charges he helped mastermind the huge fraud that sunk the one-time $240 million credit union. The Nikolovskis maintained dual residences in Macedonia and the Cleveland suburb of Eastlake, Ohio, where St. Paul Croatian FCU was based.
Prosecutors said Nikolovski and several family members and accomplices took out tens of millions of dollars in loans from the doomed credit union they never intended to repay by bribing the credit union’s CEO, Anthony Raguz. Raguz pleaded guilty earlier this year to accepting more than $1 million in bribes to approve the fated loans.
Koljo Nikolovski allegedly wired almost $6 million of loan proceeds to banks in Macedonia and Croatia. None of the funds have been recovered yet.
Also charged in the fraud are Koljo Nikolovski’s nephew Marko Nikoli, and Rose Ann Nikolovski’s brother John Cendol, Jr., along with more than a dozen other members of the ill-fated credit union.
The failure of St. Paul Croatian FCU is projected to cost NCUA $170 million to resolve, making it the biggest credit union fraud ever.
