€175 thousand worth of loan is suspicious, as well as earnings in the amount of €250 thousand. Capital Invest, now owned by Blažo Đjukanović, did not answer the questions.
It is the duty of the President Milo Đukanović’s to announce to the public who from his company Capital Invest bought the shares of Prva banka in 2008 after an incredible growth of as much as five times higher price than the nominal one, and from whom and under what conditions his company in 2007 took another loan of €175 thousand and who bought the shares with this money, Vanja Ćalović Marković, Executive Director of the Network for Affirmation of NGO Sector (MANS), told Vijesti.
Đukanović’s company took the first loan worth 1.5 million from Pireus Bank in London in 2007, whose guarantor with the same amount of money was Comsel Limited, the company of Duško Knežević from Cyprus. Friends of Milo Đukanović- Dušan Ban and Željko Mihailović, – co-owners of the ferryboat on the line Kamenari – Lepetani paid the money for this Knezević’s company from Switzerland. Only this year the public learned in what way Đukanović earned his first official million, when Duško Knežević announced it. Đukanović used this loan to buy the shares of Prva banka owned by his brother at €127, only to later sell a small part of them, after a dizzying rise, at a price of €610 for €1.55 million and thus repaid the controversial loan.
“Bearing in mind the fact that we learned that taking the first loan was extremely controversial and covered with the layers and layers of false statements we heard from him, Đukanović is obliged to tell us from whom his company took another loan, which was a secret until now, and how he returned it. The financial data of this Đukanović’s company show that the company earned over €300,000 more from the sale of shares than it was known to the public so far,” Ćalović Marković said.
The company’s balance sheet clearly states that a short-term loan was taken in 2007 and returned in 2008, as well as a controversial loan to Piraeus Bank, data obtained by MANS show.
“In the previous period, we knew that Đukanović’s company sold the shares of Prva banka and returned the famous loan to Piraeus Bank with that money. However, the company’s finance shows that, in addition to that loan, he had another, smaller one, and that the sale of shares, from which he received a larger amount than the public knew, covered both loans. Why were we unaware so far that he had other shares that he was selling, apart from the shares of Prva banka, or why we did not know that he had another loan, who gave him that loan, under what conditions, was there a guarantee , were people involved in the case of taking a loan from Piraeus Bank were also involved in this… “, Ćalović Marković said.
The financial documentation of Đukanović’s company shows that in 2008, while Đukanović was the Prime Minister, this company earned €250,000 more from the sale of shares than the public knew.
Capital Invest reports from 2008 that point to controversial transactions (Photo: Vijesti)
Vijesti sent questions to Capital Invest, owned by Milo’s son Blažo Đukanović since last year, but received no answer.
They were asked from whom and how they received a loan of €175 thousand, on the basis of which a revenue of €250 thousand was realized in 2008, whose shares were then bought and sold, in what way the company’s founders changed – did Milo Đukanović sell or give the founding share to his son Blažo. “Vijesti” also asked to whom Capital Invest sold the shares of Prva Banka in 2008 for an unbelievable price of around €1.55 million, and whether there were previous negotiations about this sale with someone or were these shares “randomly” offered at the stock market at that time. There is also no answer as to what happened with the sale of the second part of the shares in 2013, whether and for what interest rate Đukanović’s company deposited the money in Prva Banka.
Capital Invest business reports from 2008 that point to controversial transactions (Photo: Vijesti)
Đukanović was re-elected Prime Minister on February 29, 2008. From the financial statements, it can be seen that during 2008, his company had an income of €1.8 million, of which 1.55 million was from the sale of the shares of Prva banka, but the public still does not know from where his company got other €250 thousand in the period when he was Prime Minister.
There are clues that Đukanović’s company in 2007, in addition to Prva banka, bought shares in Željezara, KAP, EPCG, Eurofond and Trend, and that it probably spent about €100 thousand for it.
“According to these data, Đukanović’s company earned at least two and a half times from the sale of the shares of Željezara, KAP and EPCG, as well as Eurofond and Trend, to which the state has provided a great deal of assistance in the period when he was the Prime Minister”, Ćalović Marković said.
These data also indicate that Đukanović was not telling the truth in the statement he gave after becoming the Prime Minister in February 2008, as his businesses were all but frozen.
“Now that I’m back, do not worry at all, all my companies and all my businesses will be frozen immediately, the same day,” were his words were when he was elected in the Parliament of Montenegro. That term as the prime minister lasted until June 2009.
State Prosecutor to examine how the shares of Prva Banka grew and who bought them from Đukanović
According to MANS, the key issue that the Special State Prosecutor Milivoje Katnić should deal with is the issue of business activities of Đukanović’s companies.
“When we talk about the repayment of the loan, the special prosecutor has a mandate and he would have to determine in what way Đukanović bought those shares of Prva Banka and sold them, bearing in mind that the value of these shares reached record levels on the stock market just ahead of their sale. This points to the possibility that some speculative transactions preceded the sale”, Ćalović Marković said.
After Đukanović sold shares, there was a dramatic drop in their value.
“Therefore, the prosecutor should investigate whether it is a fictitious transaction, i.e. who is hiding behind custody accounts, through which the shares were bought from Djukanovic. We should find out if some of his friends with suspicious assets are once again standing behind this, or is Đukanović himself through some of the offshore companies he had,” Ćalović Marković said.
Authors:
Goran Kapor
Tina Popović
