Trump-Linked Company Boosts Bosnia Investment to $2.3 Billion, Gas Pipeline Project Bypassing Tender Sparks Controversy

TradingKey - On August 28, Eastern Time, according to a Bloomberg report, US firm AAFS Infrastructure and Energy plans to further expand its investments in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Co-founded by Donald Trump's former lawyer Jesse Binnall and Joseph Flynn, brother of former US National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, the company has now committed total investments in Bosnia and Herzegovina exceeding 2.03 billion euros (approximately $2.363 billion).

Amer Bekan, head of AAFS's Bosnia and Herzegovina operations, said in a phone interview that day that the company plans to build a new 100-megawatt data center in Mostar, a city in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the project valued at approximately 530 million euros.

In April this year, AAFS announced a 1.5 billion euro investment to construct a natural gas pipeline and three gas-fired power plants, as well as to expand and renovate airports in Sarajevo and Mostar. The data center is an additional project, raising the total investment from 1.5 billion euros to over 2 billion euros.

AAFS Infrastructure and Energy was incorporated in the United States in November 2025, with its registered address in Bosnia and Herzegovina listed as an ordinary residential home on a residential lane in Sarajevo. The company had not previously participated in the construction or operation of any major infrastructure projects.

The company's two founders have distinct backgrounds. Binnall previously represented the Trump family in political-related legal cases, while Joseph Flynn is a healthcare entrepreneur. The two met during efforts challenging the results of the 2020 US presidential election.

At the core of the controversy is the natural gas pipeline project. Named the "Southern Interconnection," the 254-kilometer pipeline is planned to extend from an LNG terminal on Krk Island in Croatia across the Adriatic Sea to Bosnia and Herzegovina, aiming to supply US LNG to Bosnia and Herzegovina to replace Russian supplies. As an EU candidate country, Bosnia and Herzegovina must stop importing Russian natural gas before September 2027.

Between February and March this year, the parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina passed a special law authorizing the project's construction and directly designating AAFS as the sole contractor in the legal text, without any public tender process. Transparency International's Bosnia and Herzegovina chapter publicly warned that "directly designating a specific private company by amending the law" sets a dangerous precedent that undermines the public procurement system and severely harms the public interest.

Luigi Soreca, the EU Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, sent a letter to Bosnian leaders in April criticizing the practice as "incompatible with EU law and principles of good governance," and warning that it could jeopardize Bosnia and Herzegovina's EU accession prospects and more than 1 billion euros in EU aid funds.

The US side, meanwhile, has expressed support for AAFS. John Ginkel, the US Chargé d'Affaires to Bosnia and Herzegovina, met with AAFS management in January 2026. Donald Trump Jr. visited Bosnia and Herzegovina in April 2026 and publicly criticized the EU's stance in Bosnia and Herzegovina. On April 28 of the same year, Bosnia and Herzegovina signed an intergovernmental agreement on the natural gas pipeline project with Croatia.

However, the construction contract for the natural gas project has still not been officially signed as of today (August 28), and the original signing deadline expired at the end of May. Of the two projects AAFS is advancing in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former has stalled due to controversy over authorization procedures, while the latter is a newly added investment that is currently still in the planning stage.