Yesterday, the former director of Atlas bank Đorđe Đurđić told the judge of the special department of the Podgorica High Court, Vesna Pean, what he knew about the embezzlement for which the former vice president of the Atlas Group, Mihailo Banjević, and several other persons were suspected.
"Vijesti" was told that Pean will make a decision in the next few days whether to confirm the status of an associate witness to Đurđić, which was proposed by the Special State Prosecutor's Office.
In addition to Banjević, Serbian citizen Dejan Sekulić, godfather of banker Duško Knežević wanted, Duško Đukanović and former executive director of Atlas Bank Vesna Pavlović Furth and Dutch citizen Ben Zion Benajahoe Schijveshuurder are also suspects in the case.
They are accused of abusing the official position of the suspect Sekulić, at his request, to obtain a financial benefit of almost 600.000 euros, for which they damaged Atlas Bank.
According to the order to conduct the investigation, in 2009, Pavlović Furth approved a cash loan of EUR 365.000 to Knežević's godfather with a mortgage on land in Belgrade, which the local court refused to register in the name of Atlas Bank, without valid security.
Of that amount, Sekulić transferred slightly more than 14.000 euros to his account, ten times more to the account of the legal entity Atlas Invest DOO, whose owner is Knežević, while he withdrew more than 245 in cash.
Since the loan was not repaid within the six-month period prescribed by the contract, instead of returning the money, Sekulić, using the same mortgage and disputed promissory notes and insurance policies, asked the suspected directors of Atlas Bank to conclude new contracts extending the deadline for loan repayment.
According to the prosecutor's document, they allowed him to do this for seven years in a row, so the initial debt of 365.000 euros with accrued interest grew to almost 600.000 euros.
After the expiration of the last term prescribed by the contract for repaying the loan, the suspects Đukanović and Đurđić approved Sekulić in 2014, at his request, to refinance the loan, which he did not return, based on the same non-existent mortgage.
Almost all the suspects heard by the SDT denied their guilt, claiming before the prosecutor Lidija Vukčević that they were not members of the criminal group allegedly formed by Duško Knežević.
Same status in some other subjects?
If Đurđić is confirmed as an accomplice witness, it will not be the first time that the High Court assigns such a role to the former executive director of Atlas Bank.
He received such a status in the "Karbon" case, in which the Special State Prosecutor's Office accuses Knežević and his associates of having damaged the Global Carbon company for 1.900.000 euros.
An interlocutor of "Vijesti" informed about the investigations that the prosecutors of Milivoj Katnić are conducting against the banker from the warrant, said that he does not rule out the possibility that Đurđić will appear as a prosecution witness in some other cases:
"It is possible that he will get such a status in the case that the Special State Prosecutor's Office formed against Knežević's group suspected of money laundering, whose member, according to the prosecution's suspicions, is the leader of the Movement for Change, Nebojša Medojević," said the "Vijesti" interlocutor.
Although he has not yet been officially heard, the former mayor of Podgorica, Slavoljub Migo Stijepović, is also included in the investigation, who, according to the prosecution's claims, received 30.000 of the 8.000.000 euros allegedly laundered by Knežević's criminal group.
Medojević denied any connection with Knežević and the group suspected of money laundering.
Bonus video:
