Montenegro President Denies Role in Money-Laundering Ring

Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic on Wednesday denied having had any relations with Albanian oil businessman Rezart Taci, who is accused in Albania of involvement in an international money laundering scheme.

On November 13, BIRN has published theTaci’s wiretapped conversations in which the Albanian businessman said he had involved Djukanovic in money transfers to Montenegro’s Prva Bank.

“It is a completely fabricated affair. I don’t know who the people are, nor have I had contact with them in any way … this is a complete forgery, but these forgeries have become a kind of practice in political life in Montenegro,” Djukanovic told a press conference in Cetinje after meeting Polish President Andrzej Duda.

On November 12, Albania’s Special Prosecution against Corruption, SPAK, issued an arrest warrant for Taci, accused with four Italian citizens and two accomplices of money laundering and of running a structured criminal group.

According to SPAK, the group laundered profits from Italian oil businesses through Albania in return for a share of the cash. A court in Palermo is also investigating whether Thaci and several Italian citizens laundered more than 20 million euros.

The media reported that Taci joined forces with a group of Italian citizens to transfer about 20 million euros to accounts of Albanian banks so that they are not blocked by Italian police.

BIRN has published Taci’s wiretapping conversations in which he said Djukanovic will help him transfer the money to Prva Bank, owned by his brother, Aco Djukanovic.

On Tuesday, Prva Banka denied the accusations, claiming that the media were trying to cause damage to the bank and its shareholders.

In 2016, a European Parliament resolution urged Montenegro to investigate and prosecute the “high-level cases including alleged money laundering by Prva Banka (First Bank).”

The state-owned bank was privatized in 2006 and sold to Djukanovic’s family. His government has since put huge amounts of state money in it while the opposition and some NGOs have accused the bank of laundering money of organized crime and giving bad loans to criminals and Djukanovic allies.

When these loans were not repaid, Djukanovic bailed out the bank in 2008 by forcing the parliament to adopt a special law that granted it 40 million euros.

An investigation by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, OCCRP, said there was no proof the bailout loans were ever repaid and that, to provide needed cash for the insolvent bank, Djukanovic sold the state electrical company, EPCG, and diverted the proceeds to the bank.

The bank has never been investigated by the Montenegrin authorities.

On Wednesday, Montenegro’s Special State Prosecution said it has opened an investigation into the money laundering case, while Djukanovic said he would respond to any call of the prosecution.

“It will only take a few days for the affair to collapse like a tower of cards. Today, no one mentions Pandora’s papers, and they [soon] won’t this affair from Albania either,” Djukanovic said.

On October 22, Montenegro’s State Prosecution opened an investigation into the so-called Pandora Papers findings, which revealed that Djukanovic and his son, Blazo, placed money in offshore accounts via two trusts.

Earlier, on October 4, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists revealed how a Swiss fiduciary firm helped Djukanovic create two trusts in the British Virgin Islands tax kaven in 2012. According to the Montenegrin NGO MANS, the Victoria Trust named Djukanovic as the beneficiary, while the Capecastel Trust named his son, Blazo.

Djukanovic told the media that he established the trust when he was not in public office and was engaged in his own business affairs.