The Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT) filed an indictment against Duško Knežević, the former secretary of the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office, Nenad Vujošević, and three other employees of Atlas Bank, for the criminal offense of creating a criminal organization and money laundering.
That prosecution act was submitted to the Podgorica High Court for confirmation. The news was unofficially told that one of the pieces of evidence for the indictment and a notebook were found after the search of the apartment and house of the businessman from the warrant, which allegedly contains a list of people to whom he gave money.
The Chief Special Prosecutor Milivoje Katnić showed this evidence as a guest on the Public Service in October last year.
The criminal organization, according to the prosecution, acted on the orders of Knežević, against whom special prosecutors are conducting several proceedings.
He previously denied that his notebook existed and claimed that it was a "placemat".
According to unofficial information, the notebook also contains the names of the former mayor of Podgorica, Slavoljub Stijepović, the current adviser to the President of Montenegro, Milo Đukanović, as well as the leader of the opposition Movement for Change, Nebojša Medojević...
An indictment was also recently filed against Stijepović as a member of the criminal organization of the head of the Atlas Group.
Medojevic also denied that he ever took money from Knezevic.
The administrative board recently rejected the SDT's request to revoke the immunity of that deputy due to conducting criminal legal proceedings.
Recordings
Knežević previously published several audio recordings of phone conversations with Vujošević, in which the former secretary of the prosecution claims that he gave money to the supreme state prosecutor Ivic Stanković, so that he would help in the cases against Knežević.
Knežević brought the 8 million euros he got into Montenegro and ordered Vlatko Rašović to leave them in his safe in the office at Atlas Bank. During 2014, money was taken from the safe several times for different purposes. It was packed in books and envelopes, according to the prosecution
However, after his arrest, Vujošević admitted that he took money from Knežević, but also claimed that the money did not end up with the prosecutor, but that he used it for treatment.
He stated that he only "swayed" Knežević in order to extract more money.
At the end of October, special state prosecutor Lidija Vukčević announced at a press conference that the money laundering investigation against Knežević and his associates Đorđe Đurđić and Vlatko Rašović was expanded.
She then said that there are reasonable suspicions that Knežević tried to put eight million euros in cash, which he received from the sale of the "Princess" hotel, into legal channels.
The company "Kaspia Property" from Dubai paid out eight million to Knežević at the beginning of 2014, and a few months later, on two occasions, they paid another 4.400.000 euros to his account.
Since the purchase of the hotel failed, and Knežević did not return the money that the Azerbaijanis demanded on several occasions, by order of the Commercial Court in Podgorica, before which the Azerbaijanis initiated a dispute against Duško Knežević, the previously given Atlas Bank guarantee of 12,5 million euros was activated.
"Kaspia" got its money in court, but Knežević never returned what he had previously taken.
Safe
Knežević, as Vukčević explained at the time, brought the same money, i.e. eight million euros, into Montenegro and ordered Vlatko Rašović to leave it in his safe in the office at Atlas Bank.
"During 2014, money was taken from the safe several times for different purposes. He packed himself in books, envelopes...", points out Vukčević.
During the search of Knežević's house in Golubovci and the apartment he used near Gorica, books were found in which money was allegedly taken from Montenegro. The searches of these facilities allegedly confirmed the testimony of witnesses in previous investigations against the fugitive businessman.
According to her, further checks led to new evidence and expansion of the investigation.
"The investigation included the VA, PS and SO. It is suspected that he took money from Đurđić and Rašović and put it further into legal channels, depositing it into the accounts of Knežević and his related persons, from where the purchase of movable and immovable property was made," she said. is Vukčević's.
Knežević publicly denied the criminal offense several times and filed several criminal charges against his employees for, as he stated, false testimony.
Judge Pean assigned a case, but she will not work on it
Knežević's defense attorney, lawyer Zdravko Đukanović, told "Vijesta" that the indictment was submitted to Judge Pean, who should schedule a hearing to examine the justification and legality of the indictment.
The lawyer explained that he received information in court that Pean will be exempted from acting in that case, because she previously made decisions in cases of confirming the status of cooperating witnesses.
The defense attorney added that the defense would definitely request an exemption: "But in this case, the court will make such a decision before the defense's proposal."
After that, this case will be assigned to another judge who will determine the date of the hearing to examine the justification and legality of the indictment.
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