Last night, the Chief Special Prosecutor Milivoje Katnić refused to speak about the details of the Telekom affair and did not explain why the controversial businessman Veselin Barović was not prosecuted in that case. “Dan”, in cooperation with the Network for Affirmation of NGO Sector (MANS), revealed documents that Katnić did not wish to comment, which show that Barović negotiated the price of minority shares during the privatization of Telekom, signed by the then Prime Minister, and today’s head of the state, Milo Đukanović.
This is a piece of evidence that was presented at the hearing of the director of the Magyar Telekom in the United States, during a trial against three directors conducted by the Federal Court in Manhattan, because four false consulting contracts were made, through which bribes were paid to Montenegrin officials. This is Evidence number 68, which refers to the email containing minutes of the meeting held on 12 January 2005 in Podgorica.
In a deal signed with the U.S. judiciary, Magyar Telekom admits that the controversial four contracts with Fiesta, Sigma, Aktiva and Roli company were made to ensure that Montenegrin government officials will be able to buy shares of minority shareholders in order to have two thirds of shares, which was their condition for the purchase of Montenegro’s Telekom Crna Gora. The document on the hearing, in which representatives of the U.S. judiciary questioned directors, contains, among other things, information on the email sent by Silvije Radišić, a consultant of Magyar Telekom, to one of the director on details of the meeting in Podgorica.
As can be seen from the documents, a secret meeting in Podgorica was attended by Oleg Obradović, Veselin Barović from Eurofond, Damjan Hosta (Monte Adria), Tamás Morvai, Magyar Telekom representative, as well as Johannes Solich and Silvije Radišić from CA IB. It is a company that provided consulting services to Magyar Telekom in the process of privatization of Telekom Crna Gora.
In the minutes of that meeting, it is stated that Barović had a significant influence on HLT, Eurofond, Atlas fond and Moneta, which together have 15.4 % of the shares, and that he was able to provide an additional 17%, i.e. he had a significant influence over around 32% of shares of minority shareholders.
In the minutes of that meeting, Barović and Hosta estimated that minority shareholders would accept a bid of at least €2.5 per share, but there was a problem because Magyar Telekom had a limited budget for the purchase of minority shares of €2.2, so the company CA IB – as a consultant – suggested that the Government add €0.3 per share.
Obradović then said that this could be done, but that he would have to additionally check with the main decision-makers from the Government.
After that meeting, another meeting was held on the same day, between Obradović and Kofler, director of a consulting company that advised Magyar Telekom.
In Item 5 of the minutes from that meeting, it is stated that the Government should pay €0.3 per share to minority shareholders.
It turned out that the price of the shares requested by Barović was agreed in the end, as Magyar Telekom nevertheless paid shares of minority shareholders €2.2 per share, and the government added the missing €0.3 per share based on the decision signed by then Prime Minister Milo Đukanović.
In this way, the Government accepted everything agreed at the secret meeting, and Đukanović signed the decision on March 31, 2005, of which there is a document.
The Government of Montenegro sold Telekom in 2005, and it was clear even then that it was a very suspicious business. The U.S. authorities soon suspected corruption, so their Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched legal proceedings at the end of 2011. Now it could become clearer why the representatives of Magyar Telekom, using fraudulent consulting contracts as a mask, paid €7.4 million bribe to Montenegrin officials.
The Chief Special Prosecutor Milivoje Katnić said that lawyer Ana Đukanović, sister of Milo Đukanović, was mentioned regarding the affair “Telekom” in the U.S. papers, but refused to say what was stated there. Responding to a question by Nikola Marković, the editor of “Dan”, Katnić said that they had checked the contract in connection with Telekom, connected to Ana Đukanović, but that there was nothing disputable about it. However, he did not explain how they came to that conclusion and what was exactly checked. In the TV show “Ukrštene riječi” Marković reminded that Katnić recently presented at the press conference a scheme related to the Telekom affair when he pointed out to four contracts that were signed, one of which concerning Sigma, through which the lawyer Ana Đukanović was paid for alleged consulting services to Telekom.
– You say that you looked into that and that everything was according to the law. Based on what – Marković asked.
Katnić said that they checked it and that all contracting obligations were met.
Marković then showed the contract between Magyar Telekom and the U.S. judicial institutions, citing something quite different from what Katnić claims. Marković then read the statement of the Magyar Telekom.
He added that by this document, Magyar Telekom admits that they concluded fictitious agreement with Sigma, where they provided false data and where services in the amount of 580,000 were not performed, as well as that details regarding Barović and Ana Đukanović are publicly available.
Answering the question by Marković whether Ana Đukanović is mentioned in files submitted to the Montenegro’s State Prosecutor’s Office from the USA, Katnić said that they did not determine her criminal responsibility. Marković repeated the question and emphasized that he was only interested in whether the lawyer was mentioned in those papers by name, and the Chief Special Prosecutor confirmed it.
He continued by saying that he should not talk about the evidence and threatened to leave the show.
– I cannot answer the question because I am not allowed to do so according to the law, – Katnić said, and after a heated discussion between the editor of “Dan” and the Prosecutor, the show was briefly interrupted.
They will examine the details of Milo’s loan
During the TV show, Marković also asked Katnić whether he would examine Duško Knežević’s affairs with Đukanović, if any.
– We take assumption and examine whether they were any affairs. Why not, we will examine everything – Katnić said.
He claims that he will also examine the agreement on the guarantee of businessmen Željko Mihailović and Duško Ban for loan of Milo Đukanović with Pirues Bank, indicating that this is an important issue. Katnić claims that the owner of the Atlas Group caused damage to the state in the amount of 120 million and that the investigation of his business is going into six directions. He believes that Knežević hired the best lawyers in the UK to protect € 60 million chased by both the East and the West.
He announced that an internal auditor of Atlas Bank was arrested because he used the irregularities reports internally, and there were irregularities. He also stated that Knežević would be arrested in case of issuing a red warrant and, if conditions are met, extradited to Montenegro.
