At the beginning of last year, Miloš Medenica sold his unfinished villa in Krašići for 700,000 euros, and data obtained by the MANS Investigative Centre show that son of Vesna Medenica, former President of the Supreme Court, invested only 16,000 euros in the construction, while the rest was financed by Rade Arsić, a businessman from Tivat.
Author: Dejan Milovac
In mid-2012, the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism (MSDT) issued a building permit allowing Miloš Medenica, Rade Arsić, and their business partner Željko Kovinić, to build three tourist villas at the very seashore in the settlement of Krašići, Municipality of Tivat, with a total gross area of around 440 square meters. This permit referred to cadastral parcels owned by Medenica and his partners.
The documentation obtained by the MANS Investigative Centre shows that Miloš Medenica was introduced to this business by Arsić and Kovinić by selling parts of their plots to him in 2006, with a total area of 160 square meters, which gave Vesna Medenica’s son his place in this investment. Purchase and sale contracts show that Miloš Medenica paid only 16 thousand euros for these plots.
Contracts on the purchase of plots
After obtaining a building permit and starting works, Arsić and Medenica subsequently concluded an Agreement on joint investment construction in September 2016, which regulated the financing of the construction of Miloš’s villa in Krašići.
Agreement on joint construction
The contract stipulates that Medenica is going to invest two plots in this business venture, which he previously bought from Arsić and Kovinić, while Arsić’s obligation is to provide funds for the construction of the facility.
With this contract, Arsić undertook to bear the costs of drafting the project and paying fees for land development, as well as to obtain all consents and permits. Arsić’s obligation was also to prepare Miloš’s plots for construction, regulate the connections for electricity, water and sewage network, and bear the complete costs of performing all works.
The construction of one tourist villa, with a total area of 116 square meters, was envisaged on Miloš’s plots, and the agreement on joint construction provided that Arsić would receive 75%, and Medenica 25% from the built area. Arsić and Medenica agreed that the investment in the construction of the mentioned villa, together with the plots that Miloš included in the project, amounted to only 69,000 euros.
However, although the contract stipulated that he would receive only a quarter of the built villa, in 2018, with the consent of Arsić, Miloš Medenica registered the entire facility. The situation on the ground shows that Arsić built a facility that is about 50 square meters larger (167 m2) than the project envisaged, which is why the note “exceeding the building permit” was entered in the real estate sheet.
The value of the gift that Medenica received from Arsić in that way was shown at the beginning of 2021, when Miloš sold his villa to a Turkish citizen for the amount of 700 thousand euros.
Contract on the sale of the villa
MANS Investigative Centre tried to get a comment from the businessman from Tivat on the business he had with son of Vesna Medenica, including the circumstances under which Miloš Medenica became the owner of such valuable property, but Arsić did not answer the questions.
There was no answer to the question whether, apart from the mentioned plot, Miloš Medenica had some other investments in the construction of the villa, which would justify the fact that despite the joint construction contract, he still registered 100% of the building, not one quarter as was provided for in the contract.
Vesna Medenica was arrested a few weeks ago on suspicion that as a member of a criminal organization formed by her son Miloš, she committed the crime of undue influence. Miloš Medenica left Montenegro earlier and is not available to the Montenegrin authorities.
Arsić also gave real estate to granddaughter of Vesna Medenica
Rade Arsić recently confirmed to the MANS Investigative Centre that he is a close friend of the family of Vesna Medenica, which justified the gift he gave to her granddaughter in 2018. A plot of 586 m2 in the centre of Kolšin, worth 21 thousand euros, was registered on the underage granddaughter of Medenica, as “an expression of gratitude”, as Arsić stated in the gift agreement. Only ten days before giving the gift, Arsić planned to build a villa of around 340 square meters on that plot, for which he had already paid the utilities and received a building permit.
Today, there is a building on the field that is identical to the one that Arsić planned to build, while the real estate sheet states that it was acquired as a gift. The planning documentation for that facility showed that the value of the investment was at least 125,000 euros, while Arsić claims that he did not participate in the construction of the house.
Criminal charges for illegal construction, MSDT hid surveillance data
In 2020, MANS filed criminal charges against Miloš Medenica and Rade Arsić with the competent State Prosecutor’s Office for illegal construction and usurpation of land in the area of the coastal zone in Krašići, as well as with the competent MSDT’s inspections. The Basic State Prosecutor’s Office then rejected the criminal charges against Medenica, while the outcome of the proceedings for Arsić is still unknown.
MSDT then denied access to information to MANS related to the actions of the competent inspections in the case of the illegal construction of Miloš Medenica and Rade Arsić. “By prematurely disclosing the requested information, there is a possibility of drawing conclusions, and prejudging possible liability before the control is performed and the inspection is completed”, the MSDT’s response to MANS’s request reads.
Miloš claimed before the prosecutor that he did not know Kovinić
At the end of 2020, Miloš Medenica was questioned in the Basic State Prosecutor’s Office (ODT) in Kotor on the circumstances from the criminal report of MANS, who stated that the last time he was at the construction site of his villa was in 2017, when rough construction works were completed, and that he entrusted Arsić with all the works related to obtaining approval and building the project. Medenica confirmed before the prosecutor that he knew about the building permit issued in his name, as well as Rade Arsić and Željko Kovinić.
However, although he had previously bought a plot of land from him with which he entered the business of villa construction in Krašići, Medenica stated before the competent prosecutor that he did not know Kovinić. Although formally listed as the investor of the facility was built illegally, the ODT in Kotor believed Medenica that he was not aware of the details of the construction, and therefore dismissed the criminal charges against him.
