Serbian billionaire Miroslav Mišković pleaded not guilty to charges of embezzlement and tax evasion, reports the Washington Post. If convicted, Mišković faces up to ten years in prison.

According to the Washington Post, Serbian authorities have accused Miroslav Mišković, his son Marko, and nine alleged associates of misappropriating millions of dollars from a road construction company from 2005 to 2010.

Mišković was first arrested in December 2012, “stunning a region that had long seen him as untouchable,” reports Reuters. Mišković was released on US$16 million bail.

According to Reuters, Mišković is the owner of Delta Holding, an insurance, retail, real estate and agriculture empire he built up in the early 1990s under Slobodan Milošević’s rule. In 2007, Forbes named him one of richest 1000 people in the world, estimating his wealth to be around US $1 billion.

Domestic and international authorities have found the means and magnitude of Mišković’s wealth suspect. A decade ago, the United States Treasury Department prohibited Americans from doing business with Mišković’s Delta Bank. In 2007, Serbia’s Anti Corruption Council expressed concern with the political influence Mišković gained from his fortune, which they estimated to be at least 6% of Serbia’s GDP, reports CIN-Serbia. Reuters estimates the average Serbian earns just over US$500 a month.

Mišković ‘s arrest is part of a larger anti-corruption campaign led by Serbia deputy prime minister Aleksandar Vučić, reports Reuters. Political commentator Petar Lazić said that Vučić is “…sending a message, to the domestic and international public, that no one is untouchable, and he wants them to believe it.” Vučić said additional arrests are forthcoming.

Mišković 's defense team has said that he has done nothing that is illegal or immoral. According to Reuters, Mišković said, “ I'm not guilty, I don't feel guilty," and told Radio B92, "I didn't understand the indictment, only the personal details, quantitative details and dates, but not one word of the indictment.”

The OCCRP has previously reported on Mišković’s assets in the investigation the Mišković Millions, which probed into his offshore companies and monopolization of grocery and retail markets in the Balkan region.

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