Ljiljana Stijepović, wife of Slavoljub Stijepovć, a long-time government official suspected of money laundering, spent over € 215,000 on the purchase of real estate and vehicles, which are funds not reported in her husband’s property records, MANS Investigative Centre reveals.
According to the invoice obtained by MANS, in early 2013, Mrs. Stijepović spent almost €39,000 for luxurious Audi Q3 SUV. In his statement on income and property for that year, Slavoljub Stijepović reported a new vehicle, but not from where the money to buy it came from.
Invoice for Audi Q3
At the time of purchase of the car, Stijepović family had no savings, and no loan was reported to justify the purchase of a luxury Audi SUV. Similar situation is with the regular income of the Stijepović family, which in 2013 amounted to around €20 thousand, only half of the amount they had allocated that year to buy Ljiljana’s Audi.
When asked about the origin of nearly € 39,000 for the purchase of Audi, the Cabinet of the President of Montenegro Milo Đukanović, where Stijepović works as a Secretary General, replied that the vehicle “was paid in several instalments from the regular family household income”.
Stijepović family (Ljiljana on the far right end)
Stijepović’s property record does not contain information on the purchase of the vehicle in instalments, nor on the savings from which it could be financed. We did not receive a response to a request for a more detailed explanation of the purchase of the vehicle in instalments from the Cabinet where Stijepović works.
That is not the only property of Ljiljana Stijepović that cannot be explained by her family’s officially reported income.
Namely, Slavoljub and Ljiljana live in a four-bedroom apartment of 121m2, located in the part of Podgorica across Morača river. Documentation obtained by the MANS Investigative Centre shows that the apartment was paid €145 thousand. The purchase contract was concluded in 2005, when Ljiljana paid €50 thousand, while the rest was paid in several instalments until the end of 2008.
Purchase agreement for the apartment
At the same time, Mrs. Stijepović spent additional €30,000 on the purchase of two parking spots in the underground garage of the building in which she purchased the aforementioned apartment.
Building in which Stijepović family owns real estate
Official data on the income and assets of Slavoljub Stijepović show that his family’s total income from 2005 to 2008 was around €62,000.
When asked from which funds valuable real estate were purchased, Stijepović’s Cabinet replied that Ljiljana Stijepović’s apartment was “bought thanks to inheritance”. However, no inheritance or other source of financing for the purchase of these properties was reported in the property records for that period.
MANS Investigative Centre and “DAN” have repeatedly tried to get a detailed explanation of the origin of €215,000 paid for real estate and vehicles, but until the publication of this story, we have not received an answer to these questions from Stijepović’s cabinet.
Lazar Grdinić
MANS Investigative Centre
“Agency guarantees that Stijepović’s property was acquired legally”
Instead of answering concrete questions regarding manner in which the disputed property was acquired, the Cabinet of Slavoljub Stijepović stated that the Agency for Prevention of Corruption (APC) had never asked him to prove the origin of the property owned by Ljiljana:
“According to the Law on Prevention of Corruption, which obliges him as a public official to submit the Report on his property and income, as well as the property and income of his spouse, Slavoljub Stijepović duly submitted the Report for each year from the moment of application of this Law,. Accordingly, and pursuant to Articles 23 and 24 of the Law on Prevention of Corruption, he duly declared ownership of his spouse’s immovable and movable property, as well as any other obligations under this law. We also using the opportunity to remind you that, in accordance with Article 30 of the Law on Prevention of Corruption, the Agency for Prevention of Corruption verifies the data from the Report by comparing it with the data collected on the property and income of public officials from the authorities and legal entities who have such data. The same article specifies that, if the Agency determines in the procedure of verification that the property and income of the public official and persons related to the public official are higher than the real revenues, the public official is obliged, at the request of the Agency, to provide detailed information within 30 days on the grounds of acquiring property and income, which was never the case when it comes to the assets of Mrs. Stijepović. Bearing in mind all the above, we are informing you that the wife of Slavoljub Stijepović provided all the necessary information specified in Articles 23 and 24 of the Law on Prevention of Corruption.”
On the other hand, since its establishment, APC has declared itself not competent to handle cases before 2016, which is one of the reasons for not verifying Stijepović’s property.
“Envelope” insufficient for suspension
Slavoljub Stijepović is a long-time state official and distinguished member of DPS. Since February this year, he is suspected for criminal offense of “money laundering through aiding and abetting”, after a video released by businessman Duško Knežević showed Stijepović taking an envelope with €97,500, suspected of having been spent on DPS’ campaign for the 2016 parliamentary elections. The Special State Prosecutor’s Office recently announced that it expanded its investigation against Stijepović, while it was then unofficially confirmed to DAN by the Special State Prosecutor’s Office that there was an investigation of additional €30,000 that Stijepović had allegedly taken from Knežević.
Screenshot of the video where Stijepović is taking the envelope
Since January this year, when the “Envelope” affair started, there has been no information that Stijepović was suspended from his job as Secretary General of the President of Montenegro due to a prosecutorial inquiry, and during that time, he regularly appeared at official state ceremonies.
