Kerum arrested at a concert in Vela Luka for illegal construction
Split Mayor Tomislav Šuta Refused to Comment on Illegal Construction Case, Stressing Kerum is Not a City Council Member.
Split Mayor Tomislav Šuta Refused to Comment on Illegal Construction Case, Stressing Kerum is Not a City Council Member.
Entrepreneur, former mayor of Split, and president of the Croatian Citizens' Party (HGS) Željko Kerum was arrested on Wednesday evening in Vela Luka on the island of Korčula. According to unofficial police reports, as carried by Zadarski list, Kerum was with his family at a concert dedicated to the late singer Oliver Dragojević when officers from the PNUSKOK anti-corruption unit took him into custody.
As reported by Index.hr Gastro, the arrest is linked to the "Konoba Pršut affair", Kerum is accused of illegal construction of a restaurant facility in Kaštel Štafilić, and the legalization of the space is also under question. The public learned of the investigation in May 2026, when Kerum dismissed all allegations, claiming everything was legal.
Split Mayor Tomislav Šuta briefly responded to the news. He told Index.hr:
"As is known, Mr. Željko Kerum is not a member of the Split City Council nor does he participate in its work. We have a quality collaboration with City Council President Igor Stanišić and expect continued support from HGS councilors in implementing projects important for Split's development and the interests of its citizens. Regarding the specific case, this is a procedure being conducted by the competent institutions. Mr. Kerum will present his side of the story within the legally prescribed process, and it is not up to me to comment on ongoing cases or to act as his representative."
Željko Kerum was born on September 25, 1960, in Split. He spent his childhood in Ogorje, a village at the foot of Mount Svilaja, and moved to Split in 1974 to enroll in a technical high school, leaving village life behind. In the 1980s, he worked as an excavator operator for Melioracija in Split, and his job took him to Iraq, where, as he later liked to emphasize, he built bunkers for Saddam Hussein.
At the end of the 1980s, he returned to Split's Riva and earned a living selling fish. There he also met his first wife, Ankica Lalin, whom he married in 1989. That same year, he opened his first store in the ground floor of the family home in Brda. It was the beginning of a business empire that grew at lightning speed.
According to his biography published by Večernji list, he opened his first large supermarket in 1996 in Lora. The purchase of the remnants of Jugoplastika in 2003 and the opening of the Joker shopping center in 2007 on the site of a demolished factory earned him the status of the largest entrepreneur in Dalmatia. At its peak, his company employed over 1,000 people, and his assets were estimated at 200 million euros. Throughout this time, his sister Nevenka Bečić was by his side, handling the most important financial affairs.
In 2009, he entered politics as an independent candidate and defeated SDP's Ranko Ostojić in the second round, becoming mayor of Split. His sister Nevenka became the president of the City Council, and Kerum soon founded the HGS. His term was marked by the intertwining of public and private interests, controversial developments on the western coast, and an attempt to build on Marjan's First Water, which was prevented by citizen protests.
At the same time, his first marriage was falling apart. In October 2009, during a live television show, he admitted that after 19 years he was divorcing Ankica Lalin because he had been in a secret relationship for five years with Fani Horvat, 24 years his junior, who was then expecting their child. He married Fani in Rome in 2013, the same year he lost his mayoral position.
As his political influence waned, the HGS made two unsuccessful attempts to regain power, financial problems also mounted. The company Kerum d.o.o. officially went bankrupt at the end of 2018, with debts amounting to hundreds of millions of euros. But Kerum never stopped living high. According to Večernji list, with the help of his nephew Igor Sapunar, the family managed to preserve attractive properties through a network of related companies.
Kerum himself described his remaining business operations in an interview with Večernji list:
"My wife and I have 330 tourist beds, in Rogoznica and Split. We have two or three construction projects, one of them being Lora. We have furniture production in Benkovac and Kaštela. Basically, the business is much smaller and simpler. The tourist part, the hotel segment, is run by my wife; I don't interfere in that. She does it successfully, the company is doing well and making a profit. I have a construction company and I am involved in construction work."
Kerum already has a stint behind bars. At the end of 2025, he served 15 days in prison for driving a car despite a valid driving ban that lasted from May 2024 to May 2026. With this latest arrest, occurring in the midst of the tourist season on Korčula, the public now awaits an official statement from PNUSKOK and the further course of the investigation.
