The company "Master Inženjering" paid at least 180.000 euros to furnish two apartments in the Perla building in Budva, in order to conceal that they were actually owned by the company. Aleksandar Mijajlović i Zoran Lazović.
This is stated by special prosecutors in a case filed, as they claim, against the formal but also covert owners of the construction companies "Bemaks" and "Master Inženjering".
The document, which "Vijesti" has access to, states that numerous pieces of evidence support the claims of the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT) - from DNA expert findings, stays in them, utility bills, messages from the reception desk, photographs...
It is alleged that Mijajlović in this way hid the illegal profits of the criminal organization he formed for cigarette smuggling, and the former assistant director of the Police Directorate hid the money originating from the drug smuggling group. Radoja Zvicer, or rather from the cigarette smuggling gang in which his son is a member Petar Lazovic...
“... Acquired property, namely the accused Aleksandar Mijajlović apartment registered in LN number 3623... and the accused Zoran Lazović apartment registered in LN number 3623... which apartments they held/used together with their family members, after, at their request, the said apartments were furnished by the legal entity 'Quality Living' from Belgrade and the architect Aleksandar Petrovic", the documents state.
It is explained that the defendants Veselin Kovačević, as the executive director of "Bemaks", and then Ranko Ubović and Mijajlović, as the hidden owners of that legal entity, falsely presented whose apartments they actually belonged to - by keeping them registered in the real estate cadastre as the property of that construction company.
"In order to conceal the real owners of the apartments, they furnished the apartments, which, according to invoices issued for at least 90.000,00 euros per apartment, were paid for by the defendant legal entity 'Master Inženjering' doo from Podgorica, even though they knew that the real owners of the apartments were the defendants Aleksandar Mijajlović and Zoran Lazović and that they had been acquired through the described criminal activity, and that the defendant Aleksandar Mijajlović furnished the apartment together with his family members, while the apartment of the defendant Zoran Lazović was furnished by the defendant Vladan Ivanović and the defendant legal entity 'Master Inženjering' doo from Podgorica, which... paid for the furnishing of the apartments, in order to conceal the facts about the ownership of these properties," the prosecutors state in the text.
I've never slept there.
Mijajlović said in his defense that the apartment was not his, nor that he furnished it: "It is already the property of the company 'Bemax', whose owner is his godfather."
He said that, according to the documents, his family had stayed in that apartment a few times - "never for more than 2-3 nights", and that he had never slept in that building.
He explained that "Bemaks" received the apartment as compensation for rough construction work on the building it is located in, because its investor Ivan Bajković did not have the money to pay for the work. He said he knew this from Vesko Kovačević's story.
"None of his family members have keys to the apartment and they always had to report to 'Bemax' when they wanted to use the apartment."
Responding to questions from special prosecutors, Mijajlović pointed out that he knew that the apartments were furnished, but that he did not know who furnished them and when: "He had not heard of the company 'Qality Living' from Belgrade, but he knew the name Aleksandar Petrović, because he was an architect who cooperates with Vlado Ivanović. He also states that it is possible that his ex-wife gave advice on how to furnish the apartment in question, because she is interested in the field of interior design, and that he does not see anything wrong with it, and it is also possible that the owner asked him to help in that regard, because his wife and the wife of the owner of 'Bemax' hang out and spend a lot of time together. In addition, he points out that he never paid the bills related to this apartment, such as telephone, water, electricity bills and the like, and assumes that the company 'Bemax' did it," according to part of his defense.
45 years of acquaintance
The SDT document also states that Zoran Lazović denied having any connection with the apartment, nor that he knew where it was located, and that he rarely stayed on the coast: "And that he knew that DNA was taken from that apartment from 40 locations, and that it was determined that his DNA was not found anywhere, which means that he never entered that apartment."
He also states, the document states, that he never spoke to anyone about ownership, nor did he ever talk about furnishing the apartment - which was confirmed by architect Petrović during his interrogation, when he pointed out that he did not know any of his family members.
He did not deny that he had sat in the same company with Aleksandar Petrovic several times, but they never talked about this apartment.
He also states that during his arrest, the police asked him to hand over the key to this apartment, when he clearly stated that he did not own any apartment in Budva, and did not want to attend the search of, as he claims, someone else's apartment.
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In response to questions from special prosecutors, Lazović explained that he did not know whether his family members were staying in that apartment, "because for security reasons he avoided going to the coast when his family members were there."
"In addition, he points out that he has known Ranko Ubović for 45 years, they have been friends since he was a student and when Ranko Ubović, as a high school student, came to the disco where he kept order, and that they later continued to hang out and that he often stayed with him at the 'Grand' club."
He is aware, they quote in the documents, that Ubović has been in business for many years - from catering to construction, but he has never discussed with him the details of his business.
"He points out that he does not know whether Ranko Ubović is the real owner of the companies 'Genex', 'Bemax' and 'Grand', which everyone in Montenegro knows. He never asked him to tell him whether he was also the formal owner of these companies"...
Arrest, then release
Businessman Ranko Ubović and current member of the Board of Directors of the company "Bemax" Veselin Kovačević were arrested on October 27th on the orders of the Special State Prosecutor's Office.
A statement from the institution stated that they were handcuffed due to suspicions that they had committed multiple money laundering crimes:
"And continues to carry out urgent evidentiary actions in Podgorica, at the order of special prosecutors and in accordance with the decisions of the competent court, with the aim of collecting evidence and traces of criminal acts," it was announced at the time.
Ubović was released from custody on December 5 by a decision of the Higher Court, which the SDT deemed illegal because the decisions had not entered into legal force...
The High Court then dismissed the SDT's appeals against that decision as unfounded.
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