CROATIAN police have raided the homes of the founder of the country’s biggest private company and his former aides amid an ongoing investigation over collapse of retail giant Agrokor.

The state prosecutor’s office said the raids were part of a probe into 15 people suspected of “criminal acts against the economy and fraud”.

Croatian media said several people were detained in the raids. It was reported that Agrokor founder Ivica Todoric, was not in his Zagreb home but in London.

Todoric said in a statement published on his website that the accusations against him and his associates were unfounded and part of a “political process”.

He added he was preparing his defence, which “will shed light and bring to justice all those who have used criminal activities and unconstitutional laws to hide the biggest robbery of private property in modern Europe”.

He accused Croatian prime minister Andrej Plenkovic and his ministers of being behind the alleged plot.

The state-run HINA news agency said some 300 police officers took part in the early-morning raids on several locations.

The suspects reportedly face accusations of falsely presenting the company’s finances for personal gain.

Agrokor, the biggest retailer in the Balkans, has accumulated an estimated 5.8 billion euro in debt, or six times its equity, while rapidly expanding operations in the region.

Its biggest creditor was Russia’s Sberbank.

Croatia’s authorities have tried to bail out Agrokor to avert a ripple effect on the economy and save tens of thousands of jobs.

Parliament has passed an emergency law to protect the state from big company failures.

AP