After paying €50,000 bail and gave his house as collateral, Bosnian businessman Momir Nikolic was released from custody and left Montenegro, CdM learns. Nikolic is suspected of forming a criminal organization for money laundering together with DF MP and PzP leader Nebojsa Medojevic,
Namely, as the CdM learns, the High Court in Podgorica accepted Nikolic’s bail offer. The Bosnian businessman left Montenegro and returned to Bosnia-Herzegovina.
As a reminder, in addition to Medojevic and Nikolic, PzP director Dejan Vujisic, the party’s technical secretary Zeljko Scepanovic (Medojevic brother in law) and a local foreign currency street dealer Gordan Konatar are among the accused as well.
Nikolic, who was previously questioned in Banja Luka, allegedly described in detail the functioning of the criminal group, as well as the way in which it managed to launder money through €2,000 donations and the purchase of 2,000 tablets. The money origin is still being investigated.
SDT suspects that Medojevic and Nikolic thought up a plan to legalise the money Nikolic obtained illegally through his construction business, as Tivat-based Graditelj company’s entrepreneur. They aimed not to present those assets as revenues to the competent authorities and thus evade paying taxes.
Investigators found that on several occasions Nikolic had received from abroad almost €1m on his bank account. Those suspicious money transfers were mostly from the former Soviet republics, now EU members. According to the information obtained by the investigators, in a single transaction, Nikolic received €175,000 from Lithuania. They suspect those were transfers of money through Russian companies based in Lithuania.
Since 19 October last year, investigators have been figuring out who was involved in the money laundering network and what the fraudulent scheme for covering up the origin of the disputed dollars was like. Transactions of Scepanovic and Konatar came into lime light last year in October, when they were caught with money of suspicious origin.
Then, police seized €30,000 from Scepanovic and €18,000 from Konatar. It was later found that Scepanovic exchanged $100,000 in euros on at least three occasions. Investigators believe that the money was intended for the payment of field activists engaged during the election campaign. The investigation showed the money intended for payment of PZP activists during the election day was kept in a safe of a Podgorica-based bank.
