(Podgorica, 4 July 2012) – MANS today submitted yet another set of criminal charges to Djurdjina Ivanovic, the State Prosecutor for Organized Crime, Corruption and War Crimes, against the former Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic and the current Prime Minister Igor Luksic, as well as 14 other individuals. This was done in order to ensure that future prosecutors, who will do their job properly, will have enough evidence to criminally prosecute them and remove illegally acquired property from them (which the accused secured at the expense of citizens and for their own benefit and that of the First Bank).
Among the accused are: the majority owner of the First Bank, Aco Djukanovic; the President of the Board of Directors of the First Bank, Kazimir Pregl; the former director of the First Bank, Predrag Drecun; as well as the governor of the Central Bank of Montenegro (CBM) Radoje Zugic. The entire management and the Board of Directors of the Electric Power Company of Montenegro (EPCG) also stand accused, including Srdjan Kovacevic, Enrico Malerbe, Nikola Martinovic, Miodrag Canovic, Boris Buskovic, Mauro Miglio, Renato Ravaneli, and Emilio Rota.
Djukanovic, who was at the top of the hierarchy, secured through the intermediation of the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) government and parliamentary measures that only served the interests of the First Bank. While the Bank, whose shares he holds, can without any penalty violate the laws and constantly continue receiving funds from the state budget.
Through the First Bank, Aco Djukanovic, its majority shareholder, continued to distribute credits obtained from the state budget to himself and other associated figures.
Luksic, first as Minister of Finance and later as Prime Minister, adopted and carried out decisions that ensure that state money would be transferred into the First Bank. In this way, he ensured that the First Bank would never actually have to return these funds and that state deposits would be held for a prolonged period in the first bank (shoring up its liquidity).
The management of the EPCG continues to hold the income from its recapitalization in the First Bank, which has a direct impact on this still majority state-held company. This is done with the hopes of maintaining liquidity and securing private profits for associated individuals. They were also able to recover losses and damages resulting from its deals with the First Bank through monthly electricity bill payments made by citizens.
Just in the past few days, a 5% electricity price hike was announced, which citizens are expected to start paying on 1 August 2012. This is the second increase since January, as a result of which citizens are now going to have to pay bills that are 12% more expensive than at the end of last year.
Similarly, the DPS and the First Bank were used to secure private benefits. While the DPS was instrumental in adopting laws that enabled state funds to be transfered to the First Bank for a longer or indefinite period, Zugic and Pregl for their part – in the name of the First Bank – adopted policies and concluded agreements that also allowed money from state coffers to be transferred into the bank’s accounts.
Similarly, Zugic – together with Drecun, Damjanovic and Franovic – attempted to suppress evidence concerning the commission of criminal acts, preventing oversight by the Central Bank of Montenegro (CBM), which had been pointing to irregularities and problems in the First Bank for years.
These individuals, who are all closely linked to each other, have been continuously engaged in illegal actions, using state structures and institutions to carry out their deeds, thereby demonstrating that we’re dealing here with the most serious forms of organized crime. At the same time, the status and position of the accused Milo Djukanovic, Igor Luksic, Zugic, Damjanovic and Franovic, along with the role of the DPS, indicates that they have a dominant influence over the legislative, judicial and executive authority.
MANS will leave sufficient evidence for all future prosecutors concerning the enormous abuses of state funds that were committed for the benefit of the FIrst Family, its friends and kum-s. We will continue to file charges since it is clear that at one point the question of accountability will finally emerge for all the plunder that they carried out at our expense.
Similarly, the current Prime Minister Igor Luksic knows very well that MANS has for years been trying to ensure that criminals end up in jail. We therefore understand his fear that he will also find himself on the list of those responsible when a new government – that won’t be influenced by organized crime networks – finally places this issue on the agenda.
We are not seeking violent overthrows but are fighting to ensure that criminals end up in jail, while the money that they secured through criminal actions be returned to the state budget.
