Author: Dejan Milovac (MANS Investigative Centre)
Less than a month prior to his arrest, Aleksandar-Aco Mijajlović founded a new company called “Easy T”. Four days after Mijajlović was arrested on suspicion of organizing cigarette smuggling, ownership of assets worth 10 million euros was transferred to this company.
Aleksandar Mijajlović
According to data from the Central Registry of Business Entities, a company “Easy T” was founded on January 22 of this year at the address Studenska 2A St. in Podgorica, where other companies associated with Mijajlović are also located, including “EASY DRIVE”, which is stated as the sole owner of the new company. “Easy T” is registered for construction business, and the executive director is Mirjana Burzan, who holds the same position in the company “EASY DRIVE”.
Data obtained by the MANS Investigative Centre show that only four days after the arrest of Mijajlović, the statute of the newly founded company “Easy T” was changed in a manner that the non-monetary contribution of the founder – the company “EASY DRIVE” was increased by 10.1 million euros.
It is about 28,000 m2 of land and about 15,000 m2 of business premises near the former Titex factory complex in Podgorica. Data from the cadastre show that a new company was registered on this property on March 1 of this year. It is about a complex that was granted to the parent company “EASY DRIVE” after the judgement of the Commercial Court from April last year, which confirmed the decision of the bankruptcy administration of Vektra to sell the aforementioned assets to Mijajlović for nine million euros.
Aleksandar-Aco Mijajlović was arrested on January 19, 2024, and is suspected of creating a criminal organization that was engaged in cigarette smuggling. Apart from Mijajlović, Dejan Jokić, Zoran-Žuti Đukanović, Golub Vojinović, Dragan Backović, Milenko-Mića Rabrenović, Radoje Rabrenović and Mirko Mijušković were also arrested as alleged members of the criminal organization.
How was the company EASY DRIVE established?
The parent company “EASY DRIVE” was founded at the end of 2007 by Srđan Ubović, under the name “Sergio” with an initial capital of five euros.
The very next year, in 2008, the capital was increased by 40 thousand euros, after half of that amount each was paid through two commercial banks. Thus, CKB Bank issued a certificate that a certain Rajko Domazetović paid 15,000 euros, and after that, additional five thousand euros.
The second certificate was issued by Prva Banka Crne Gore (First Bank of Montenegro), without specifying who paid other 20 thousand euros into the bank account of the company “Sergio”.
Mid-2009, Srđan Ubović handed the company over to Veljko Lakušić, free of charge, who shortly after brought additional 62,558 euros into the company as founding capital. It is interesting that Lakušić paid the mentioned amount through the bank Hipotekarna banka in several instalments, each of which was below 15 thousand euros, which is the maximum above which banks are required to check clients and their transactions.
In the following year, the company got its current name, “EASY DRIVE”, while in 2011, it became the property of Aleksandar Mijajlović. In the contract on the basis of which the ownership of “EASY DRIVE” was transferred to Mijajlović, it is stated that the nominal value of the company’s capital is 103 thousand euros, and that Lakušić is transferring it to him as a gift, without compensation.
The latest available financial report for 2022 shows that the company, founded with 5 euros, owns real estate worth 6.3 million euros, and equipment worth additional 1.36 million. The “Easy Drive” company officially has 10 employees, and at the end of 2022, it had accumulated retained earnings of around 4.8 million euros.
Millions invested in luxury vehicles
In the last seven years, the company “EASY DRIVE” spent at least two million euros for the purchase of luxury vehicles. The data available to the MANS Investigative Centre show that one of the most expensive vehicles, the Lamborghini Urus, was purchased at the end of 2022 for the amount of 310,000 euros. This company also imported vehicles with special protection – the so-called armoured vehicles, thus, in mid-2021, two Audi A8L vehicles were acquired for a total of 250,000 euros.
One of the vehicles that the Police Directorate confiscated in last year’s raid of the Hotel Podgorica and which it claimed belonged to Ranko Ubović, the real owner of the company “Bemax”, cost 212,000 euros and was registered to “EASY DRIVE”. It is a black luxury SUV of the BMW XM brand, produced in 2023, which Mijajlović imported from Germany. This and several other vehicles were seized due to the suspicion that they had been given and illegally used for the actions of the Special Police Team while Zoran Lazović was at its head.
The company owns at least two Rolls Royce vehicles. One of them, “Wraith” type, was purchased at the end of 2015 for the amount of 280,000 euros, while the Ministry of the Interior (MoI) did not submit data to the MANS Investigative Centre on the other vehicle, “Cullinan”. Its price on the car market is around 350,000 euros.
Additional 220,000 euros was spent by Mijajlović for the purchase of three BMW vehicles, which were purchased from Voli Motors, which is also the official representative of that brand for Montenegro. These are two so-called “fives”, and the SUV X6, which was paid 89,000 euros.
Data obtained by the MANS Investigative Centre under the Law on Free Access to Information show that until 2016, “EASY DRIVE” also owned a Bentley Continental GTC vehicle, which was sold to the construction company “Modena gradnja” from Budva for the amount of 125,000 euros. In the same year, Mijajlović imported a sports-car Audi RS 6 Avant 4.0 TFSI QUATTRO from Germany for nearly 70,000 euros.
The vehicles of this company are also recognizable by their personalized license plates that contain “Easy”, the name of the company, in the inscription. The documentation submitted by the MoI shows that these plates were transferred from vehicle to vehicle owned by this company, thus, they could be seen, apart from those listed, on other expensive vehicles such as Porsche Panamera, Mercedes G and S class, and Ferrari.
The main activity of the company “Easy drive” is “renting and leasing of cars and light motor vehicles”.
The Customs Administration responded negatively to the request for free access to information on the amount for which “EASY DRIVE” has so far been exempt from paying tax on the import of cars that this company allegedly used for its business purposes. In its response to MANS’ request, the Customs Administration referred to the Customs Law and stated that the requested data was an “official secret”, specifically the customs declaration containing data related to the calculation of the so-called input VAT.
In addition, the Customs Administration carried out the legally prescribed harm test, after which it was concluded that “there is no prevailing public interest in disclosing of concrete information due to the reason that it does not reasonably indicate corruption, non-compliance with regulations, unlawful use of public funds or abuse of authority in the exercise of public office”.
