Author: Tina Popović (ID Vijesti)
Former head of state, Milo Đukanović, spent a quarter of a million euros during nine years he owned the Atlas Bank’s VIP revolving card.
Yesterday’s decision of the Agency for Prevention of Corruption (APC) states that the card was used from January 2007 to the end of 2015, and in that period, inflows – cash payments of more than 10,000 euros, were recorded a total of 11 times.
Yesterday, the Agency announced a decision according to which Đukanović had violated the law, because in 2019 he did not report the amount of 16,741.24 euros – the debt on his VIP revolving card in Atlas Bank, which was allegedly settled by his son Blažo that year.
This was done six years after the Network for Affirmation of NGO Sector (MANS) urged the initiation of the proceedings, which all previous managements avoided.
Analytical data related to the VIP revolving card were obtained by the Agency during the proceedings, through the case files of the Commercial Court.
“By inspecting the case files submitted by the Commercial Court of Montenegro on November 21, 2024, at the request of the Agency, it was established that the VIP revolving card in question indisputably existed, as well as that it was used in the period from January 2007, where, ending with the month of May 2015, when it comes to income, turnover of 236,195.02 euros was realized, while when it comes to expenses, in the period up to December 2015, the turnover was 249,016.33 euros. Analysing the card, inflows of cash payments to credit card accounts in the amount of over 10,000 euros were recorded a total of 11 times: March 2007 – 20,000 euros, September 2007 – 20,100 euros, April 2008 – 15,000 euros, January 2009 – 16,635 euros, April 2009 – 12,760 euros, October 2009 – 15,000 euros, October 2010 – 18,149.17, November 2010 – 10,000 euros, July 2011 – 10,000 euros, July 2012 – 11,600 and May 2015 – 20,000 euros”, the decision reads.
The State Prosecutor’s Office to step in urgently
Vice President of the Agency’s Council, Mladen Tomović, says that the APC “urgently needs to forward this case to the Special State Prosecutor’s Office (SSPO) in order to clarify whether the case in question contains elements of the criminal offense of money laundering or any other criminal offense for which prosecution is undertaken ex officio”.
“Regardless of the body of the decision, which established a certain violation of the Law, page four is much more interesting to me, where it is stated that in the period from 2007 to 2015, 11 cash payments were made to the said card in the amount of more than 10,000 euros, i.e. in the total amount of 236,000 euros. As I recall, these amounts were not reported in the assets and income report, and since they were cash payments, in my opinion, this can be a criminal act of money laundering in the specific case”, Tomović said.
He also emphasizes that this decision adopted “six years after the case came before the APC, indicates a change in the course of the new management and decision-making in accordance with the law”.
“It is undeniable that, based on everything we know, the previous management tried in every way to protect the highest state officials, in this particular case as well.”
The Director of MANS, Vanja Ćalović Marković, is convinced that ” 250,000 euros that, upon the initiative of MANS six years ago, APC found on one of Đukanović’s cards in Atlas Bank, is only a fraction of the enormous wealth that he illegally acquired for decades.”
“With this decision, Montenegro’s institutions for the first time established the traces of the illegally acquired property of Milo Đukanović”, Ćalović Marković emphasized.
She says that it is extremely important that “at least one institution has finally started working and uncovering the traces of that money upon our initiatives”.
“We expect the State Prosecutor’s Office to conduct an urgent investigation in this case and finally initiate proceedings against Đukanović, instead of putting them in the drawer as in the case of the first million, hidden trusts that MANS discovered within the Pandora Papers and many other cases related to Milo Đukanović,” Ćalović Marković said.
Living off salaries, they have no debts
In his statement to the Agency, Đukanović confirms that he was the owner of the VIP revolving card:
“At the request of the Agency from 15.07.2021, document number UPI 02-01-6/14-2019, the public official submitted a written statement in which he pointed out in essence that he was the user of the said card, which he obtained like every citizen in a private capacity and for personal expenses, and not for the expenses of any position he held. He further pointed out that he was not aware of the existence of a financial debt in the amount of 16,741.24 euros, and that his son B. Đ. had paid the said amount. He also added that he would have reported this in the regular annual report had he knew it existed, he added.
The obligation to report any debt or claim – principal, interest, repayment period also existed in the former Law on Prevention of Conflict of Interests, which was in force from 2009 to January 2016.
According to the official data on the Agency’s website relating to the period from January 2007 to December 2015, the former head of state never reported that he was in debt on any basis.
During that period, he held several positions – from an MP to prime minister. He did not hold government positions in the period from 2010 to 2012, when he again assumed the presidency of the Government until November 2016.
During 2007, according to official data, Đukanović family had two salaries, i.e. 12,720 euros per year. That year, the former President reported ownership or co-ownership in several companies, but not the income from those companies. Their son Blažo is the owner of two business premises that he received as a gift. That year, Blažo earned 132,000 euros from renting business premises.
A year later, Đukanović’s salary was 1,227 euros, while Lidija Đukanović had a salary of 1,436 euros. Although he declared co-ownership in the companies – a quarter in “Universitats”, half in “Global Montener”, while “Capitalinvest” is his own property, Milo Đukanović did not report the earnings from his companies to the Commission for Prevention of Conflict of Interests that year either. Business premises received as a gift are still owned by Blažo Đukanović, and 11,000 per month flows into the household budget from their rental.
During 2009, Blažo Đukanović bought an apartment in Žabljak, and in the assets and income report of the then prime minister, it is stated that the property was purchased thanks to the income from the rental of business premises. Đukanović did not report income from the companies that year either, but he did report his salary of 1,256 euros and his wife’s salary of 1,084 euros.
Already the following year, the son of the then prime minister moved out of the joint household, thus, there was no income based on the lease of business premises, and the salaries of Đukanović Sr. and his wife did not change. A similar situation remained during 2011, when he was officially out of politics, while in 2012, Đukanović reported buying real estate in Kočani, and that he was paying it off in instalments. A year later – in 2013, Đukanović returned to the position of prime minister, and that year his wife and he earned around 13,000 euros.
Although he co-owns or owns the companies, he still does not report the income from them. When it comes to official money inflows, there were no changes in 2014 either, while that year Lidija Đukanović inherited several properties. In 2015 as well, the last period of spending on the VIP revolving card, Đukanović family had no debts, and they lived off their salary – the prime minister earned 1,170 euros at the time, while his wife earned 972 euros.
“Vijesti” and CIN-CG announced back in 2019 that the now-accused banker Duško Knežević, through Atlas Bank, covered debts from Đukanović’s card number VIP revolving card, and that his debt on that card was a “risky loans”.
In February 2017, Knežević, i.e. his bank, allegedly repaid 16,741.24 euros, together with other risky loans that totalled 14 million at that time, and it was about privileged persons.
