Croatian Paralympian in midst of scandal about government money received

From Javno.com in Croatia:

The soap opera regarding the Paralympics athlete Antonija Balek continues. Now the news are that the gold winner got a reward from the government despite the fact that the investigation into the allocation of money is ongoing.

According to our information, a meeting was held at the Croatian Paralympics Committee on Nov. 14 at which Balek was discussed, Balek’s attorney Zdravko Baburak told us.

- We held a meeting, but I don’t want to speak of the details. I advised Antonia the same because the media wrote a lot. Regarding the money, I am not sure, while Antonija is in shock and does not know if the money was deposited on her account – Baburak said.

According to unofficial information, the meeting lasted for more than eight hours and they made no progress. The executive committee tried to listen to Antonija, her coach Ivica Jakeljic and manager Branko Omazic.

Unfortunately, the three of them accused each other and only Antonija arrived with her solicitor. The atmosphere was heated and in the end nothing was concluded.

The question is, how did the government pay the reward because the reward is the cause of the conflict. The gold Paralympics winner accused her coach of putting people she has never seen on the rewards list. She accused the coach of threatening her life and he denied it. A big scandal broke out after her brother said that she could in fact walk and was not disabled at all. After that the government suspended the payment of rewards for the two won gold medals.

The investigation is not over, but according to sources, Antonia got the money. So what was the purpose of all that and who in the end got the money? We got no answers from the government.