The investigating judge in the Italian city of Siena will decide on January 25 whether to accept the proposal of the local prosecutor to extend the investigation for another half year, which is being conducted against the Kazakh magnate, a naturalized Montenegrin, as part of the "Hidden Partner" affair. Igor Bidil.
"Vijesti" announced earlier that Bidilo, who received Montenegrin citizenship in 2017 at the proposal of the state president Milo Đukanović, in Budva through his company "Velja voda lux" intended to build a luxury condo hotel in the very center of the city. That investment venture was the first major conflict and caused a political crisis between the Democratic Front and the Democrats.

"The hearing at which the investigating judge will Ilaria Cornetti have to decide whether to extend the investigation into the 'Hidden Partner' affair, which is being investigated by the financial police of the Guardia di Finanza, and coordinated by the prosecutor Siro de Flamineis, was postponed to January 25. As is known, the prosecution began to turn the spotlight on the business of Kazakh magnate Igor Bidil in 2018, and then the case exploded in the spring of this year. The prosecutor asked for a six-month extension of the investigation because the outcome of important international investigations through subpoenas would still be missing," reports Italian media.
The Italian financial police, the Guardia di Finanza, seized Bidil's assets in the "Hidden Panther" action, in which 12 people are suspected, charged with the criminal offense of money laundering, as well as tax, corporate and corruption crimes, criminal offenses against property. In March last year, the Italian media announced that Bidilo had bought numerous restaurants and bars in that country over the years in Siena, Florence and Milan.
The Tivat company "Velja voda lux", whose founder is the company "CG investment" majority-owned by Bidil, the chief state architect Mirko Žižić made the construction impossible, after passing a decision on terminating the approval procedure for the conceptual design of a luxury multi-story condo hotel.
"The suspension of the procedure lasts until the adoption of the Spatial Urban Plan of the Municipality of Budva", it says in that decision.
Previously, at the end of June, the Government made a decision on the creation of a Spatial Urban Plan for Budva, which simultaneously invalidated two controversial planning documents - the detailed urban plans "Budva Center" and "Bečići".
A plot of 2.947 square meters in the city center, which is included in the DUP "Budva centar", owned by a Tivat company, practically led to a political war in the ruling coalition in Budva for the past two and a half years.
On the one hand, the mayor Marko Carevic and his Democratic Front insisted that the Municipality take over an attractive plot of land and turn it into a park, under which a four-story garage would be built, and in return they would cede to the company "Velja voda lux" the unfinished commercial and residential premises in TQ Plaza, which were taken from the criminal group Svetozar Marović.
On the other hand, the Budva Democrats claimed that the assessment of the real estate that would be part of the exchange was unrealistically carried out, to the detriment of the Municipality. They suggested that those 3.000 square meters in the city center be declared public interest, that is, that green area be protected from concreting.
After the media in Montenegro announced that an investigation was being conducted against Bidil in Italy, Mayor Carevic's proposal for a million-dollar exchange of real estate at the Budva parliament session in early July did not receive the green light from the coalition partners. Namely, the decision was withdrawn from the agenda of the parliamentary session. The withdrawal was requested by five councilors from the Movement for Change, the Socialist People's Party and the Right of Montenegro, which was supported by six councilors from the Democrats, while eight councilors from the New Serbian Democracy and the Democratic People's Party were against it.
Tsarević requested that the parliament adopt a decision based on the protocol that he concluded in October 2019 with the representatives of "Velja voda lux". That protocol stipulated that the Tivat company would cede a plot of 2.947 square meters in the city center to the local government, and in return they would receive 4.891 square meters of unfinished business and residential space across from the TQ Plaza complex - the roughly finished Lamela C.
Bidil's company was supposed to become the owner of commercial and residential premises valued at 6.685.527 euros, and the Municipality will receive a plot valued at 6.188.700 euros.
The Tivat company needed to pay the difference in the value of 496.827 euros to the municipal budget.
The real estate appraisal in TQ Plaza was done by the Commission of the Real Estate Administration, while the same work for the land of the company "Velja voda Lux" was done by a licensed appraiser and a court expert. Saša Zejak.
Democrats, on the other hand, at the same parliamentary session, proposed a decision on determining the public interest, which was withdrawn, after Tsarević's proposal was also withdrawn.
Along with the decision, the Democrats also submitted an estimate of the plot of the company "Velja vode lux", which is 1,65 million euros, four times less than what was done by the appraiser Zejak for the purposes of the protocol.
After that, the Tivat company announced that the assessment of the value of their plot, which was carried out by an appraiser hired by the municipal Secretariat for property protection at the request of the Democrats councilor club, has no legal force and was carried out illegally.
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