The Mayor of Budva, Dragan Krapović, said that the Municipality of Budva will no longer agree to any plea agreement concluded by the members of the Budva criminal group with the Special Prosecutor's Office, because in the experience so far, the metropolis of tourism has remained short-handed.
He emphasized that the Municipality did not gain much from the plea agreements of members of the Budva organized criminal group.
"It's as clear as day. None of the agreements concluded so far brought what the citizens of Budva needed. Without going into the prison sentences imposed, what the court verdicts were. However, the damage that was caused must be settled. And I don't think that was achieved by the agreements that were concluded. Our impression is that maybe the prosecutor's office closed the criminal-legal case, however, the civil legal matters were done quite sloppily. A lot of it was not registered, something was registered and we are now registering it. There was a lot of confusion. The mortgages are were registered with the state where they should have been registered with the municipality," Krapović pointed out.
As an example, he cited Svetozar Marović, who was obliged to pay one million and one hundred thousand euros into the municipal coffers. As a guarantee that he would pay the fine, Marović pledged his grandfather's property in Jaz and the village of Krimovica, on which the state registered a mortgage.
His son Miloš also guaranteed that he would pay the fine with land on the Jaz, on which the state also registered a mortgage. As the fine has not been paid, 20 thousand square meters can be sold, but problems have arisen there.
"Marović gave a certain piece of land as a guarantee. The state's mortgage was entered by mistake, and it was the responsibility of the Municipality, because he was obliged to pay the money into the municipal budget. At that time I was not in office. When we took over the management of the city, we dealt with all with these agreements and saw that the mortgage should have been registered with the Municipality", said Krapović.
He said that the Municipality sent requests to the Special Prosecutor's Office, which it accepted, and now the local government is registered as a mortgage creditor of the first order.
"However, now the Special Prosecutor's Office, through an extended procedure for the confiscation of criminally acquired property, is demanding the same plots that Mr. Marović and his son gave according to the agreement. And it may happen that the same plots will be confiscated by the state of Montenegro, as property acquired by crime, and the Municipality will remain mortgage creditor, so instead of Marović's property, in order to compensate for the damage, they will sell state property," said Krapović.
Krapović pointed out that in the coming period the Municipality will start selling the property that belonged to it based on the concluded agreements.
"We simply have to try to collect some of the funds that were due to us. What we got in the TQ Plaza complex is a property that is very difficult to manage, it requires additional funds to be able to put it into operation, or to sell it to someone as a finished product. In general, it is our opinion that the Municipality did not gain much from those plea agreements", said Karpović.
He could not say how much the Municipality can earn from the sale.
"But what is prescribed by the judgments must be replaced. When I say that, I think that what we got in the TQ Plaza complex, we estimate it to be worth 19 and a half million. However, if we want to sell that property, we have to ask for approval Ministry of Finance. After that, if we get the green light, we have to do an appraisal. When we do that, it's authorized appraisers, who can appraise the property for less than what was determined by the judgment. We're put in an awkward situation. It's disproportional. "I don't know on what basis those experts determined. The former government gave consent to those agreements, and now we have to compensate for the damage," concluded Krapović.
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