The Special State Prosecutor's Office is checking whether, on the order of Atlas Group President Duško Knežević, several employees of Atlas Bank used dirty money to pay back loans approved in that bank.
The SDT launched an investigation into money laundering under the guise of banking operations a few months ago. The prosecutor's office was allegedly suspicious of the express return of bank loans.
In that investigation, six employees of Atlas Bank, mainly the driver, were arrested, and yesterday they were detained for up to 30 days.
Due to the suspicion that they are members of a criminal group that laundered money, the investigating judge of the High Court Vladimir Novović sent Knežević's driver Vlatko Baja Rašović, Natko Peličić, Predrag Pejović, Dražen Vujisić, Goran Grujović and Vlado Stevanović into custody.
All of them denied guilt during the hearing. Their defense attorneys announced that their detention was ordered due to the risk of influencing witnesses.
The SDT suspects that in 2016 they became members of a criminal organization formed on the territory of Montenegro and Cyprus, and laundered money in branches of Atlas Bank.
The Prosecution believes that in October last year they laundered around 96.000 euros, which they initially converted from dollars to euros.
A source from the investigation said that the money was paid from the accounts of two Cypriot companies and that the arrested Rašović, Peličić, Pejović, Vujisić, Grujović and Stevanović knew that it came from criminal activities.
SDT suspects that the orders to exchange the money were allegedly received from Knežević and the then director of Atlas Bank.
The prosecutor, Lidija Vukčević, suspects that the arrested persons put the money acquired through the illegal activities of two Cypriot companies into legal flows in Montenegro.
Vukčević suspects that each member of the criminal organization had a predetermined task and role, and that the activities of the criminal organization were planned for a long time, but also that they operated on an international scale.
According to "Vijesti" information, the prosecution suspects that the alleged criminal group had two organizers, and that one of them is Knežević, the president of the Atlas group that he controls.
After the arrest of his employees, he announced that he had evidence of the origin of the money and told the Special Prosecutor's Office to leave his employees alone.
"If you have to detain someone for that, I will be at your disposal as soon as I recover from the operation, performed recently in Belgrade. These are my employees and I stand behind them. Even if there are any elements of a criminal offense, and I am convinced that there is not, I am the one who is ready to answer," Knežević wrote, adding that the money for which they were arrested was his.
In custody so as not to influence the witnesses
Rašović's defense attorney, lawyer Velibor Marković, told "Vijesta" that the SDT investigation was declared secret:
"I am forbidden to present details related to this event, that is, to those actions that have been blamed on them. Rašović was questioned in the capacity of a suspect, he presented his defense and denied the commission of a criminal act".
His colleague Aleksandar Đurišić, the defender of Stevanović and Pejović, said that the two also denied guilt:
"Due to the order on the secrecy of the proceedings, I cannot talk about any details related to the case, but I absolutely do not believe in their guilt. Their detention was ordered due to the possibility of influencing the witnesses, and the grounds for possible co-perpetrators and organizers and the danger of destroying financial documentation, that is, evidence in the specific case, were dropped.
According to "Vijesti" information, SDT planned to hear Knežević and several current and former directors and executives of Atlas Bank as witnesses.
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