KRIK: Successful Investor in Serbia, Suspected of Money Laundering in U.S.

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The Real Knitting sock producer, headquartered near the Serbian town of Backa Palanka, was on the receiving end of a financial transaction worth $1.2 million, which a New York bank says might be a case of money laundering, the Corruption and Crime Investigation Network (KRIK) claims in an article, "A Successful Investor in Serbia, Suspected of Money Laundering in the United States", published on its website on Sept. 21.

In the first in a series of articles to be published within the FinCEN Files project, KRIK claims that the sock factory in the village of Gajdobra has received millions in government subsidies, but its workers complain repeatedly about poor working conditions and mobbing in the factory. The Right Knitting, which the government describes as a good example of foreign investment that Serbia needs most, has received nearly two million euros in government aid since it was opened in 2011, including 1.4 hectares of state land.

The Real Knitting promotes itself as "a success story based on Italian know-how and genuine entrepreneurship," but online marketing aside, things are not always what they seem, KRIK says. The Real Knitting workers are annoyed at poor working conditions, complaining about pressure their bosses expose them to, while the ownership of the factory and the origin of the money that has just arrived in Serbia seem to be equally problematic, the KRIK investigative journalists say.