How Two Bankers Robbed a Nation — 15% a Month

In 1992-93, as Yugoslavia's currency died of hyperinflation, two "bankers" promised salvation: deposit your hard Deutsche Marks and earn 15% a month. Jezdimir "Gazda Jezda" Vasiljevic ran Jugoskandik and turned finance into spectacle — even bankrolling a five-million-dollar chess match on the Adriatic coast while the country sat under total international sanctions. Dafina Milanovic ran Dafiment Bank, threw open her vault for the evening news, and was crowned "the Serbian mother." Both were pyramid schemes. New deposits paid old interest — that was the entire machine. When they collapsed in 1993, roughly 205,000 families and around 190 million Deutsche Marks were gone. And the same state that watched it happen later sent the bill to its own taxpayers. Episode 2 of "Could It Happen In Your Country?" — a series on how money dies, and who profits when it does. CHAPTERS 0:00 Could it happen in your country? 0:53 The morning the doors didn't open 1:44 A nation robbed twice 3:01 Gazda Jezda: a chess spectacle & 15% a month 4:49 Dafina, the "Serbian mother" 6:31 The mechanism: a pyramid, laid bare 8:05 Collapse — 205,000 families 9:44 Aftermath, and the real lesson 12:01 Could it happen where you live? Episode 1 — The Country Where Prices Doubled Every 34 Hours:    • The Country Where Prices Doubled Every 34 ...   SOURCES (full list in the pinned comment) TIME (1993), "Mystery of the Moneybags" Jezdimir Vasiljevic — Wikipedia The 1992 Fischer-Spassky rematch — Wikipedia / ChessBase Dafina Milanovic & Dafiment Bank — RTS, Vreme Frozen foreign-currency savings — European Court of Human Rights (Alisic judgment) ABOUT THE VISUALS This is an independent educational documentary. Jezdimir Vasiljevic and Dafina Milanovic were real, publicly reported figures, and the events are drawn from the reporting and court records above. Because almost no free archival footage of these events exists, most people and interiors are AI-assisted reconstructions — not real photographs — shown alongside genuine archival banknote scans and on-screen data graphics. Nothing in this video is financial advice. Subscribe — "Could It Happen In Your Country?" — new stories on how money dies. #financialhistory #pyramidscheme #yugoslavia #ponzi #hyperinflation