Advisor at the Embassy of Montenegro in Brussels Predrag Stamatovic contacted the Special State Prosecutor’s Office (SDT) on Thursday and announced he would return to Montenegro and surrender in a few days, Dnevne Novine newspaper learns.
Stamatovic is charged with being a member of an organised criminal group, which is suspected of costing the state budget by about €4m in the Primorka affair. SDT has issued arrest warrant against him and the Slovenian national Crtomir Mesaric, former director of NLB Bank.
Other suspects have been detained in Podgorica police department. Today they are to be brought to the investigative judge of the High Court in Podgorica.
Pobjeda learns that the founder of the Melgonia Primorka company, Nebojsa Boskovic, offered a plea bargain.
Boskovic was questioned again in SDT on charges pressed against fifteen persons over abusing office when allocating state aid to the Melgonia Primorka company.
Dnevne Novine reported yesterday that the arrests were made the day before yesterday early in the morning. General secretary of the Union of Municipalities of Montenegro Refik Bojadzic and former member of the Electric Power Company of Montenegro (EPCG) board of directors Boris Buskovic were arrested then. In addition to them, Vinko Markovic, Sonja Becovic, Sefik Kurtagic, Mitar Bajceta, Darko Konjevic, Irena Mijanovic, Biljana Boskovic and Vukic Perovic were arrested.
They are charged with abuse of office in economy, abuse of office in economy by aiding and abetting the crime and abuse of office committed in an organised manner.
Businessman Nebojsa Boskovic, the owner of the Krisma company is said to be the organiser of the criminal group, but he was not arrested, since he has already been in the Spuz prison for another crime.
As announced from the Special Prosecutor’s Office, founded suspicion that in early 2008 in Podgorica and Bar, formed a criminal group in order to gain illegal profit, while they, in effect, used the business structure of the Ministry of Finance, in which individual members of the criminal group performing official duties, as well as the economic structure of legal entities, in which some members of the criminal group performing duties of responsible persons.
SDT has a reasonable doubt that at the beginning of 2008, a criminal group was formed in Podgorica and Bar in order to gain illegal profit, using the business structures of the Ministry of Finance, in which some the group members were performing official duties, as well as the economic structure of legal entities, in which some of the group members were responsible persons.
“There is a reasonable suspicion that the criminal organisation planned to use two legal entities from Podgorica and one legal entity from Bar to purchase the assets of the Primorka company under favourable terms through the company bankruptcy. That was financed a loan taken out from a bank. It is also suspected that untrue conditions and results of operations of the mentioned companies were presented in the business plans, as well as the plan according to which the loan should have been used for the revival of production in Primorka and payment of liabilities to workers who lose their jobs. The plan was presented in order to get financial assistance from the Government of Montenegro, which was not used for that purpose, but for the loan repayment,” SDT stated.
On 1 July 2010, the Government of Montenegro issued a €4m guarantee for a €14.4m loan NLB Bank granted to the Melgonija Primorka company. In addition to the guarantee, the company’s assets were given as collateral. The loan was spent for liabilities of the Krisma Motors company in the amount of €2.77m, whereas €6.55m were directed to Krisma Trade company and €5.07m to Primorka. However, workers were not paid even though the loan was granted for the purpose of paying their wages, bridging service gaps, developing social welfare programmes and paying liabilities to creditors.
