Trump Allies Secure No-Tender Bosnia LNG Pipeline for Unproven Firm
The U.S. is leveraging the removal of sanctions on a Bosnian Serb leader to secure a no-tender LNG pipeline concession for a newly formed company backed by Trump loyalists, signaling deep political risk for foreign infrastructure investors in the Balkans.
The U.S. government is openly backing AAFS Infrastructure and Energy LLC to develop, build, and manage the Southern Interconnection, a pipeline intended to transport American LNG from Croatia into Bosnia. This endorsement follows a direct diplomatic campaign that bypassed a competitive public tender process. U.S. officials argue that American private investment will speed up construction and provide affordable energy.
AAFS was incorporated in Wyoming on November 24, just four days after U.S. Chargé d’Affaires John Ginkel proposed handing the pipeline to an unnamed American private firm. Despite its central role in a major infrastructure project, the company lacks any track record in energy development. The firm functions strictly as a middleman, proposing to secure the concession and financing before outsourcing the actual engineering and construction to unnamed third parties.
It has not named its contractors, operators, or capital providers, nor has it disclosed its full shareholder structure beyond acknowledging Trump’s personal lawyer Jesse Binnall and Joe Flynn, brother of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, as owners. Local businessman Amer Bekan has confirmed the existence of other unnamed partners. Bekan was brought into the venture for his government contracting influence rather than any energy expertise.
Washington’s ability to push this arrangement through stems from the sudden removal of U.S. sanctions against key Bosnian officials. In late October, the Treasury delisted Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, his children Igor and Gorica, and dozens of their associates without offering a detailed public justification. The mass delisting occurred shortly after Dodik’s Republika Srpska entity walked back measures challenging Bosnia’s central state institutions.
The diplomatic groundwork was laid earlier in the year when Republika Srpska hired RRB Strategies, a lobbying firm led by Trump ally Rod Blagojevich. The lobbying contract explicitly targeted the removal of these sanctions and the establishment of high-level contacts within the State Department. Michael Flynn was simultaneously working to connect Dodik with influential figures in Washington through a separate organization.
For international investors and energy executives, the Southern Interconnection deal represents a troubling precedent in infrastructure procurement. While the EU supports the strategic goal of displacing Russian gas, European officials have balked at the lack of transparency. Handing a critical energy asset to an opaque entity created overnight by political insiders introduces severe governance and political risk into the Balkan energy market.
