(Podgorica, 30. January 2012) – Today MANS submitted criminal charges against former and current public officials in the Government of Montenegro and in the Municipality of Budva on the basis of suspicions that they violated Montenegro’s laws and regulations in order to assist the Restis Group to realize greater profits and to avoid liability for breach of contract.
Unfortunately, in their initial reaction the Restis Group’s representatives failed to deny any of the allegations raised by MANS in relation to the company’s dealings on Sveti Stefan and at the brown coal (lignite) mine in Berane.
Instead of coming clean, Restis representatives – a company that owes millions in lease payments to Montenegro – are claiming that they brought hundreds of millions of euros in investments into the country.
It would be good to hear from the Restis Group where these hundreds of millions of euros ended up exactly, since it’s clear that they weren’t invested in Sveti Stefan and even less so in the Berane Lignite Mine.
Similarly, it’s interesting that in addition to the hundreds of millions of euros allegedly invested in Montenegro, the company Adriatic Properties is going into further debt to finance their investment (while simultaneously requesting that the price on the lease be reduced). Finally, it would also be good to hear why Sveti Stefan has been closed for five year if so much money was invested by our “strategic partner” in this location.
We believe it is time to settle accounts and that someone in the government finally be held accountable for the bad decisions that have resulted in closed hotels, destroyed factories, laid off workers and the devastation of this country’s resources.
MANS expects that the Special Prosecutor for Organized Crime and Corruption immediately initiate an investigation regarding the Restis group’s actions in Sveti Stefan and Berane, in order to immediately establish the responsibility of key actors and to figure out where the hundreds of millions of euros that the Restis Group claims it invested ended up (and whether or not particular interests received kickbacks from these privatization deals).
