Former AC Milan and Croatia defender is suspected of illegally obtaining permits to operate a campsite business with the aid of a former head of a county tourism department.
Vuk Tesija
Dario Simic at a press conference of the Croatian football team in Austria, June 2008. Photo: EPA/ROLAND SCHLAGER.
Croatian former international footballer Dario Simic was arrested on Tuesday as part of a major anti-corruption operation conducted by the Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime, USKOK, and the police, Croatian news agency HINA reported.
Neda Livljanic, a retired former head of the Sibenik-Knin County Tourism Department, was also arrested in the operation.
Investigators suspect that Simic, a former player for Dinamo Zagreb, Inter Milan, AC Milan and the Croatian national team, illegally obtained permits to run his campsite in the Tisno area, a tourist destination on Croatia’s central Adriatic coast, with Livljanic’s assistance.
Livljanic was first arrested three years ago for abuse of power or position. In July 2025, USKOK indicted her before the Split County Court for issuing illegal permits to operate a campsite.
Simic’s arrest is a continuation of the investigation into this case. USKOK has charged her and five others in the affair, including Zagreb businessman Zoran Pripuz and Eduard Marzic, former head of the Croatian Camping Association, with abuse of office and authority and the forgery of official documents related to two campsites on the island of Murter, Jutarnji list daily reported.
According to the indictment, Livljanic issued campsite permits based on inspection reports for inspections that were never actually carried out. Although the official records stated that she personally inspected the sites on Murter, she was in fact on sick leave in Zagreb and Tuheljske Toplice at the time.
To ensure the fictitious reports passed administrative procedures, investigators allege that Livljanic forged the signature of her senior associate. The colleague later told USKOK investigators: “I have never been there, and that is not my signature on the document.”
The full extent of the alleged fraud emerged in connection with Pripuz’s campsite. An inspection found that this site had no sanitary facilities or any evidence that an actual campsite existed. Investigators also determined that the land was located entirely outside the designated construction zone.
In the late-1990s Pripuz was arrested alongside others in an operation targeting an alleged criminal organisation. Of the 12 defendants, five were convicted of offences including drug trafficking, attempted murder and other crimes. Pripuz was acquitted.
Dario Simic’s brother, another former footballer, Josip Simic, was meanwhile arrested last year in an investigation into fictitious trading and tax evasion. After being questioned, he admitted charges and reached a plea agreement with USKOK and pleaded guilty. That case is not connected to Tuesday’s operation, however.
USKOK and the police have not yet issued an official statement.
