Several state and civil servants with representatives of the Boksiti Cetinje company have damaged the state for a few hundred thousand euros with embezzlement.
This is claimed by the Special State Prosecutor's Office, which suspects 18 people of joining a criminal group since 2006 in order to obtain illegal benefits for the majority owner of Bauxite.
They are charged with having committed the criminal acts of abuse of position in business operations and abuse of official position, committed in an organized manner.
According to "Vijesti" information, prosecutors spent months investigating whether state officials illegally extended the concession for white bauxite to that company.
The Ministry of Economy claims that such a proposal never went to the Government, precisely because of the investigation by the Special Prosecutor's Office.
"The company Boksiti AD Cetinje received a concession for white bauxite in 2006, with a validity period of 10 years. At the end of the term, the majority owner and chairman of the Board of Directors, Radoslav Nikčević, requested that his concession be extended, to which he was entitled as a long-term user, but his request was rejected and a public invitation was issued. He participated in two tenders. The first time he was rejected, and the second time the Commission concluded that he met all the conditions. As the only bidder, he was ranked first, but the proposal to extend his concession was never adopted or sent to the Government precisely because of the procedure previously initiated by the Special State Prosecutor's Office", explained to "Vijesta" unofficially from the Ministry of Economy.
From that government department, they claim that their officials could not be arrested because of the concession issued in 2006, because at that time almost none of those detained yesterday worked in the Ministry of Economy. The Minister of Economy, Dragica Sekulić, said that the people from that department are of indisputable credibility, rated with the highest marks.
On the order of SDT yesterday morning, Assistant Minister of Economy Vladan Dubljević and officials of the Mining Directorate of that Ministry Vesna Vujačić, Nebojša Koprivica, Ljiljana Maksimović and Radosav Čović were arrested. The director of the Property Directorate of the capital city of Cetinje, Snežana Popivoda, an employee of that directorate, Mirjana Mirković, the head of the Cetinje Real Estate Administration, Tanja Aleksić, and an employee of that administration, Sreten Milačić, were also arrested. Nikčević, his predecessor as chairman of the Board of Directors of Boksit and former Assistant Minister for Mining Radonja Minić, former and current CEOs of that company Draguljub Radonjić and Branimir Kontić and former member of the Board of Directors of Boksit Vuksan Kecojević were brought before the special prosecutors.
Also arrested were the head of the sector at the Institute for Geological Research, Darko Božović, the founder and executive director of the Cetinje company Mianja Boris and Ivana Vujović, and Filip Kovačević from Nikšić.
Most of those arrested were released after hearing.
Cetinje companies Mianja and Boksiti were also registered.
The SDT announced that the arrested suspect that they have joined a criminal group since March 2006, in order to obtain illegal profits.
"There is a well-founded suspicion that the suspects used the economic structures of two legal entities, exerted influence on officials in state bodies, in such a way that they undertook actions within the scope of their authority in business companies in order to obtain illegal profits, and officials in state bodies undertook official actions in within the scope of jobs and work tasks that are not in the interest of the official duties they perform, but in the interest of the realization of a criminal plan, which caused considerable material damage to the social community", announced the prosecutor's office headed by Milivoje Katnić.
It was not clarified how much "substantial damage" was, and the lawyers of the suspects said after the hearing that they were not presented with that information either.
In 2013, police officers from Nikšić submitted a criminal complaint to the basic state prosecutor against Radoslav Nikčević, the former director of the CKB branch in Nikšić, due to the well-founded suspicion that he had committed a corrupt criminal offense - abuse of position in business operations.
Nikčević then accused himself that, as the chairman of the Board of Directors of Cetinje Bauxite, in 2008, instead of purchasing new ore mining equipment, he used loans obtained from the Directorate for the Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises to close the deficit on the accounts of clients of the CKB branch in Nikšić.
In this way, he is suspected to have caused material damage in the amount of 200.000 euros to the company Boksiti Cetinje.
On the website of the Central Depository Agency, it is written that the biggest shareholders in the company Boksiti are Filip Nikčević with 51 percent and Mia Nikčević with ownership of 42 percent of the shares.
Police: We have to arrest you...
Assistant Minister of Economy Vladan Dubljević and officials of the Mining Directorate Vesna Vujačić, Nebojša Koprivica, Liljana Maksimović and Radosav Čović denied guilt during the hearing, stressing that they were working according to the law.
Dubljević told the prosecutor that at the time when the crime was allegedly committed, he was not even at the head of the Directorate.
Ljiljana Maksimović, an employee of the Ministry of Economy, came to the police on her own initiative yesterday, where she was arrested.
The "Vijesti" source claims that the inspectors searched for Maksimović, who lives in a tenant's apartment in Podgorica, at her old address at 6 o'clock.
After they did not find her in that apartment, the inspectors called her by phone to come to the police building.
"When she came, they put handcuffs on her hands and told her - we have to arrest you", said the interlocutor of "Vijesti".
How state land passed into the hands of private individuals
The Director of the Directorate for Property of the Capital of Cetinje Snežana Popivoda, the employee of that directorate Mirjana Mirković, the head of the Cetinje Real Estate Administration Tanja Aleksić and the employee of that administration Sreten Milačić were arrested on suspicion of enabling the Boksites to transfer state property into the company's ownership.
According to "Vijesti" information, the land in question was given to the Bauxites for use, after which it was decided at a public hearing that it would become their property.
The Real Estate Administration announced yesterday that they support the activities of the Montenegrin Prosecutor's Office in discovering, elucidating and proving all incriminations, and that individual cases cannot call into question the credibility of that state body.
In their announcement, it is written that in this, as in all other similar cases, it is necessary to respect the presumption of innocence, that is, that everyone is considered innocent until and unless his guilt for a criminal offense is determined by a final court decision.
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