Author: MANS Investigative Centre
Months-long investigation into the assets and income of the retired employee of the National Security Agency and the Police Directorate, Duško Golubović, conducted by MANS, shows that his family spent over a million euros for the purchase of several properties and luxury vehicles over a period of ten years. Golubović claims that he acquired all the property legally and with the help of his family, and that he never engaged in criminal activities.
Duško Golubović, Photo: Boris Pejović
During 2013, Luka Golubović, the elder son of Duško Golubović, signed several purchase agreements for the purchase of vehicles and real estate, with a total value of nearly 200,000 euros. At that moment, Golubović was a twenty-year-old student.
Luka bought his apartment of 98 m2 in Podgorica settlement City Kvart from the company “Čelebić”, concluding a preliminary contract in November 2013 that stipulated a price of 115,000 euros, and only a month before that, he drew off from the showroom of the “Rokšped” company in Podgorica in the then new Audi S3 Sportback car, after he had spent 42,000 euros for it. The same year, he spent additional 42,000 euros to become a co-owner of two business premises of 52 and 74 m2, as well as three garages in the “Razvršje” building in the centre of Žabljak.
Already the following year, Golubović family became the owners of another property in City Kvart, when the wife of Duško Golubović, Danijela, bought business premises of 33 m2 for 45,000 euros. She and Duško later gave away this property to their youngest child, daughter Sara.
A new contract with the “Čelebić” company was concluded in 2015, when Luka Golubović bought two garage spaces in the garage of the building where he already owned an apartment for 13,000 euros, which he paid off in the next two years.
The car collection of the Golubović family was enriched already in mid-2016, when his wife imported a luxury G-Class Mercedes SUV from Germany. According to data provided to MANS by the Ministry of the Interior (MoI) based on the Law on Free Access to Information, this vehicle was paid 105,000 euros.
Three more vehicles were registered under the name of his wife Danijela in the period up to 2010, namely, two BMW and Mercedes SUVs, as well as a Volkswagen Golf. More detailed information about how and at what price those vehicles were acquired is not available, bearing in mind that the MoI destroyed that documentation due to the passage of time.
Mid-2018, Duško Golubović bought a 69 m2 apartment in the “Normal Company” building, near the temple in Podgorica, at a price of 93,000 euros. In the purchase agreement, Golubović states that he received these funds as a gift from his elder son Luka, while data from the Žabljak cadastre show that Luka Golubović previously sold his property in that town for the same amount, which could represent a source of funds for the purchase of the mentioned apartment. The ownership of this property was later also transferred to daughter Sara.
Just three months after purchasing the apartment, in October 2018, Duško Golubović also acquired business premises in the building next to Capital Plaza in Podgorica with an area of 127 m2, as well as two garages, at a total price of nearly 180,000 euros. In the purchase agreement obtained by the MANS Investigative Centre, Golubović undertook to pay a part of nearly 80,000 euros on the day of signing, and the rest of 100,000 euros within a year. Unlike the contract for the purchase of the apartment, in this case, Golubović did not state the origin of the money used to acquire the business premises with garages. At the end of 2019, Golubović donated business premises and a garage in this building to his younger son, Igor.
After returning to the security sector in 2019, when the then director of the Police Administration, Veselin Veljović, appointed him as the deputy head of the Department for Suppression of Serious Crimes within the Sector for Fight against Organized Crime and Corruption, Golubović continued to acquire valuable property. Thus, in the space of less than three months in 2019, he bought two Volkswagen Passat vehicles, one of which was armoured and with specific characteristics, for a total of 56,000 euros. Data from the first report on income and assets which he submitted to the Agency for Prevention of Corruption upon his arrival at the Police Directorate, show that Golubović’s monthly salary in the police that year was 840 euros, and that he reported a salary of around 450 euros for his wife.
The same year, in 2019, Golubović’s wife bought a 46 m2 apartment for cash, at a price of 50,000 euros, in the same building of the “Normal” company in the part of town across Morača river in Podgorica.
Although she had no officially declared income, judging by her father’s property record, Golubović’s daughter bought a new BMW X4 in 2019. The invoice, which was issued by the company “Voli Motors” for this high-end German-made car, amounted to 57,000 euros.
In addition to all the mentioned investments in real estate and vehicles during 2019, Duško Golubović reported savings of 20,000 euros in the property register for that year.
At the beginning of 2021, Golubović’s wife also bought two garage spaces for a total of 12,000 euros in the “Normal” building, where the family already owned two apartments. The purchase of real estate continued that year by registering business premises of 62 m2 under the name of Duško Golubović’s daughter, for which 65,000 euros was spent. The business premises are located in the building next to Capital Plaza where Golubović acquired business premises and two garages three years earlier.
Data for this business premises from the Podgorica cadastre show that the Golubović family did not buy it directly from investors, but that the property had been sold before. Before selling it to the Golubović family for 65,000 euros, the previous owner bought this business premises from an investor at a price higher by nearly 40%, i.e. for the amount of 105,000 euros.
The same year that she acquired the business premises, Golubović’s daughter bought a Porsche Macan for 78,000 euros at the Rokšped car dealership in Podgorica.
Answering questions about the origin of the money for the purchase of several luxury vehicles, Duško Golubović states that at the moment, only one vehicle is registered to one of the family members, under the name of his daughter Sara, “three, four years old”, probably referring to the mentioned Porsche.
SPA centre, swimming pool, chalets in Žabljak
In the Podgorica settlement Gornja Gorica, Golubović family is completing works on the construction of a residential and commercial building with an area of around 900 m2. On the ground floor, a business space with a fireplace, a relaxation area, a kitchen, a SPA centre and a swimming pool is planned, while a three-room residential building of 350 m2 is planned for the first floor. When asked what funds were used to build this grand building, Duško Golubović emphasized that it was the joined funds of the entire family. Although there are no precise data on how much the construction of this building has cost so far, data from the Podgorica cadastre show that at the end of 2020, the Golubović family paid 100,000 euros for the land on which this villa is being built.
According to data from the property record, Duško Golubović is the owner of 3,800 m2 of fields/meadows in Žabljak, as well as three chalets. Inheritance is stated as the basis of acquisition. Part of this property (two chalets) is burdened with a mortgage for the loan of his son Luka. The value of those chalets with the associated land in 2022 was 330,000 euros, according to the report on the valuation of the mortgage facility, which was made for the purpose of taking out a loan.
Answering questions regarding the origin of the property, Golubović points out that he has never been involved in criminal activities, and that all of his family’s property was acquired legally, stressing that his wife had a rental car agency, and that the children have their own companies, and that they do not live in the same household. However, the financial statements of those companies, analysed by MANS, show that their business operations could not have been the source of the funds spent on the purchase of the mentioned vehicles and real estate.
As one of the sources of financing, Duško Golubović stated that during the period when he was not in the civil service, he was “mining” bitcoins.
MANS is going to forward the complete documentation on Golubović’s property to the competent State Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of the Interior for further processing, and they stress that all the information they gathered during the investigation was obtained using the Law on Free Access to Information.
Who is Duško Golubović?
For many years, Duško Golubović was an operative of the National Security Agency (NSA), where he was the closest associate of Zoran Lazović. After they left the NSA in 2015, he returned to the security service with Lazović in 2019, when Veselin Veljović, former director of the Police Directorate, appointed him the deputy head of the Department for Suppression of Serious Crimes within the Department for the Fight Against Organized Crime and Corruption within the Police Directorate. He officially retired in 2023.
His career has been followed by numerous controversies and media speculations about the value of his property, and what stands out is the phone records which shows that Golubović had communication with Naser Keljmendi, accused of international drug trafficking. In 2011, in a statement for the daily paper “Dan”, Golubović confirmed those contacts, saying that he was an acquaintance of Naser Keljmendi, but that he had no joint business with him. On the other hand, he then stated for “Dnevne Novine”, “I know Keljmendi, but by discussing circumstances of that acquaintance, we would be encroaching upon the professional part, which I cannot talk about”, he stated.
That Golubović was in fact in contact with Keljmendi was confirmed by both Veselin Veljović and Vladan Joković on December 23 at the session of the Security and Defence Committee. Joković, the former director of NSA, then explained that the connection with people of Keljmendi’s calibre is an integral part of Golubović’s job, as reported by the weekly “Monitor” at the end of 2011.
In just a few months of 2015, when he was leaving the NSA, explosive devices were activated in front of the restaurant owned by a company connected to his wife, but also on the fence of the family home in Podgorica.
Private business and state service
Duško’s wife Danijela was among the founders of two companies in the past, “Ideal Group” and “Macchiato Co”. “Ideal Group” operated as the “Ideal Car” rental car agency, and Golubović’s wife was the co-owner of the company from the end of December 2009 until February 2022, when she transferred the founding share to her son Luka, who also left that company mid last year.
Although in an interview with a journalist from TV Vijesti Duško Golubović explained part of the family’s income by the fact that his wife had a private company, the analysis of the financial statements of this company showed that the described transactions, i.e. the purchase of real estate and luxury vehicles by the family, could not have been financed from the income from this company, bearing in mind that it mostly operated at a loss. The same is the case with the company “Macchiato Co” in which, admittedly, Mrs. Golubović was one of the founders in a short period between 2014 and 2015.
In early 2021, daughter Sara Golubović founded the company “Sara’s Space” which deals with interior design, judging by the posts on social media. The company has one employee and generates annual revenues of several thousand euros. “Sara’s Space” is registered at the address of the business premises in Podgorica’s City Kvart, which Golubović received as a gift from her parents. Another company owned by her, “Muro Decor”, was registered at the same address last December.
On the other hand, both sons of Duško Golubović found professional employment in the security sector of Montenegro. In April 2020, the elder son Luka was accepted into the Armed Forces of Montenegro, to the position of staff officer in the Support Battalion. The one-year contract was signed with him by the then Minister of Defence, Predrag Bošković. After the contract expired, a new one was signed for three years, and it was concluded by the then Minister of Defence, Olivera Injac. Golubović’s monthly salary in that position amounted to between 600 and 700 euros, ending in August 2022, by which time MANS has data obtained under the Law on Free Access to Information.
The younger son, Igor Golubović, was admitted to the Police Directorate in November 2020, where, by the decision of the then director, Veselin Veljović, he was assigned to the position of police officer for economic crime in the Security Centre Podgorica. Data on his earnings until November 2022 show that the gross earnings of the youngest Golubović amounted to around 1,000 euros per month.
Consumer loan of 250,000 euros
In May 2022, Luka Golubović concluded a consumer loan agreement with the bank Hipotekarna banka in the amount of 250,000 euros, which he undertook to repay in twenty instalments, until October 2026. The instalment was set at the amount of 12,500 euros, excluding associated interest. Bearing in mind the data on Golubović’s salary in the Armed Forces of Montenegro, it is not clear from which sources the repayment of this loan is financed. His sister was registered as a co-borrower on this loan, and the repayment of the loan is also guaranteed by part of the family property, which is burdened with a mortgage.
The analysis of the collected documentation from the state cadastre, which refers to all the properties that were or are owned by the Golubović family, did not show that during the specified period, the family members took out other loans with which they encumbered their property, i.e. on the basis of which they acquired it.
Data on vehicles destroyed after ten years of storage
MANS was not able to obtain all the data on the price at which the Golubović family purchased vehicles in the previous period because part of that documentation had already been destroyed in accordance with the MoI’s internal regulations. “In the procedure upon this request, the first-instance authority found that according to point 72 of the List of categories of registry materials with retention periods of the Ministry of the Interior 01 number: 067/19-36985 from 16.10.2019, it is stipulated that the requirements for vehicle registration, issuance of traffic permits and technical correctness of vehicles are kept for 10 years, and considering that the registrations of said vehicles took place in 2009 and 2010, the said documentation is not available”, the MoI’s response for part of the vehicles owned by Duško Golubović’s wife reads.
Unusual history of an apartment
46m2 apartment that Danijela Golubović bought in the building next to the temple in Podgorica was owned by the family of Valentina Pavličić, the representative of Montenegro before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, before it was sold to the wife of a former NSA operative. Pavličić family acquired this apartment through a deal with the company “Bemax” from Podgorica, after Valentina Pavličić’s husband sold the ownership of the offshore company “Blueray Limited”, registered in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, one of the islands of the Caribbean archipelago, to that company. Investigating this case, MANS then discovered that within eight years, through various compensations, the ownership of that property was changed as many as six times.
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