There is almost no town, settlement or family in Montenegro that does not know someone who has fallen into the clutches of loan sharks - it is a problem that is rarely spoken about publicly, but which has been spreading silently for years, feeding on fear, silence and distrust in institutions.
Some respondents stated that they took money out of necessity, but the research also shows that there were those who took on debt to maintain a lifestyle beyond their realistic means or to repay gambling debts - decisions that they themselves recognized as serious personal mistakes in their conversation with the journalist.
Those who have fallen into a spiral of debt claim that they do not dare to report what is happening to them. Not because of a lack of evidence, but because of fear for their own lives and the safety of their loved ones.
This is the most common explanation from more than 660 citizens who spoke to "Vijesti" about their experiences with loan sharks...
The debt, according to the statements, does not end when the principal is repaid. That's when it often begins - a delay of one day means new fines, interest on interest, changes in the agreement, threats and visits to the doorstep.
Their answers paint a picture of a country in which these people are stronger than the law, a country in which victims are advised to "return the money and live in peace", a country in which reporting is not seen as protection, but as a new danger.
"Because of threats to break my sister's legs, kill my dogs, attack my father, etc. He's done this to other people before," is just one of the answers.
In hundreds of different testimonies, however, almost the same sentence is repeated - "The police know everything, but they don't want to do anything."
The survey shows that claims that some police officers are directly or indirectly linked to loan sharking are particularly worrying - whether through protecting individuals, turning a blind eye to obvious criminal acts, or due to information leaks.
Respondents state that police officers are not the only ones and that people from all walks of life are engaged in this lucrative, illegal business - from criminals to university professors...
Although these claims rarely reach a court of law, they further reinforce the feeling that the system is powerless or uninterested in seriously addressing the problem.
Because of this, threats, pressure and psychological violence, as stated by the interviewees, become part of the everyday life of those who delay the war or try to get out of illegal arrangements.
Official responses from institutions show that in the past five years, only 39 cases of usury have been brought before Montenegrin courts. Only 14 cases were reported to the police last year. Many more of them spoke to “Vijesti”.
When asked if they knew of any cases where someone had left the country or committed suicide due to debts to loan sharks, 458 out of 665 respondents answered in the affirmative.
Some of them spoke in detail about the cases of those who committed suicide due to debt, the persecution of moneylenders, the agony they brought their families into... From these gloomy conversations, the conclusion is obvious - this is a mass grave that is being kept quiet about.
This feuilleton brings the stories of those who have remained silent for years, the mechanisms through which loan sharking operates, but also questions to which the state persistently fails to provide answers - who protects loan sharks and why fear still pays more than reporting.
Do you know how much we invested in you?!
A thirty-year-old sailor from southern Montenegro claims to have been "carrying" debt since he was 21.
"And it's been going on ever since. These are the people who won't let me get out of debt," he said.
Of the initial 18.000 euros he borrowed from a high-ranking member of the Skalja clan, he claims to have returned almost half a million so far. Not only to this repeatedly arrested criminal, but also to the "comrades" who gave him ""well-intentioned" advice to repay the debt with the Škaljar clan and borrow from another clan - the Kavač clan.
"One of them gave me money as a friend, without interest. Like, you'll pay it back from your first paycheck on the ship. I paid it back as soon as I got it, but the interest kept coming back to the guy who was holding it back because I only paid him back the principal. I sent money to both of them for a long time," he says.
Some time after the "friendly" interest-free loan and when he only had 4.000 euros left in his "comradely" debt to the Kavčani, he received an ultimatum - to transport cocaine across the ocean on behalf of the clan. That demand changed everything.
“I did something stupid. The boat was in Brazil, I posted a photo from the beach on Instagram and immediately got a call. They asked me to meet a 'friend', to help them with something. I refused, saying that I didn't know who the friend was, that there was no need for me to see anyone. They insisted, saying 'it'll be good for you, good for us'. He wasn't interested in the money anymore. He asked me to transport cocaine. When I said that was out of the question, he asked me: 'Do you know how much we invested in you?' He told me 'it's not mine, it's Lj. i R. "Money" and that if I don't help them, I will owe them 20.000 euros from that day on. With interest," claims the thirty-year-old.
In the meantime, according to this "Vijesti" interlocutor, he also borrowed money from two police officers - one of them lent him money at the police station. He claims that he also paid back the interest in that building...
In an interview with a journalist, he explained that he first received the request to smuggle cocaine five years ago, and since then, ultimatums have been repeated, and each refusal meant an increase in the debt.
He claims he refused to transport cocaine for the clan.
"I was sailing, getting off the ship, coming home. I don't know when it was worse. When I'm somewhere at sea, without any signal, and when they break into my mother's or wife's house and take all the money in the house, or when I go down and meet them. They follow me, harass me, threaten me. The guy from Škaljarac where I first took the money, if I don't answer him, says that the money belongs to B., M., K.... This other one belongs to a policewoman and a clan boss. I tried to stop the agony, I told them - I've given you almost 400.000 euros in the past few years, I don't want to pay anymore, and they said to me: 'Either we take you to Vrmac, do who knows what to you? Or we take your brother or wife to Vrmac?' Then I admit the debt again"...
The notary does not ask for evidence.
During one of those agonies, he says, the scoundrel forced him to "sign a contract with a notary that they had lent me 15.000 euros through an account."
"When I entered the office, everything was ready, just for me to sign. Without anything. Without money. In two minutes. The notary didn't ask for any proof that I took the money, nor a bank statement, so I suspect that they are working with them, as are the police, because when I left the police station the other day, my brother received a message from the skalajarci that they knew where I had been and what I had been talking about," he said.
He explained that in that office he signed an admission that he had taken the money from his brother, a member of the clan, through an account.
"The notary did not ask for any confirmation of this, not even a bank statement. Looking at my accounts, it is clear that this never happened," he said.
The notary office told "Vijesti" that, considering the provisions of the Law on Notaries, providing the requested information would be a violation of imperative legal norms, which are subject to disciplinary liability of notaries.
"Namely, Article 30, paragraph 1 of the Notary Act stipulates that a notary is obliged to keep confidential the information he has learned in the performance of his duties, unless otherwise provided by law, the will of the parties or the content of the legal transaction. Paragraph 2 of the same article stipulates that a notary is obliged to provide the information from paragraph 1 of this article to the court or other state authority before which the procedure is being conducted, in accordance with the law. Furthermore, Article 74 of the Notary Act stipulates that parties have the right to inspect notarial documents, while other persons may inspect notarial documents only if they have a justified interest or written consent of the party. Article 112a of the Notary Act stipulates disciplinary violations of notarial duty, so paragraph 3, item 7 stipulates that disclosing confidential information from a notarial act that he has obtained in the performance of notarial activities is a serious violation of notarial duty," they explained.
They did not answer whether the contract was concluded with them, nor if so, on what legal basis, and whether, when concluding the contract, they requested proof that the money that was the subject of the contract was actually handed over or borrowed...
The questions that remained unanswered were what specific proof of debt was submitted, and even if proof of actual transfer of money was not required, on the basis of which the existence of a financial obligation between the contracting parties was determined, as well as whether, when drawing up the contract, they assessed whether the terms of the contract could indicate a usurious relationship.
Police: Lack of cooperation is the biggest obstacle
The Police Directorate claims that, through an analysis of available statistical data, an increase in the number of recorded cases of the criminal offense of usury has been observed compared to previous years.
"The observed changes in the trend can be linked to the intensification of the activities of the Police Directorate, i.e. the increase in the number of reports filed by injured parties."
At the same time, they say, this crime is characterized by complex and demanding evidence, which is reflected in the manner of commission, as well as the difficulty of obtaining relevant material and financial evidence, which additionally affects the processing of these cases.
"The most common obstacles to detecting and prosecuting this criminal offense are the lack of cooperation of the injured parties with the prosecution authorities in terms of providing relevant information, then giving up on filing a report and not reporting this criminal offense. Also, the difficulty of obtaining material and financial evidence is difficult, considering the ways of concealing traces and informal methods of committing this criminal offense," the Police Directorate states.
Who protects me if I take money from a police officer?
A sailor who has been paying off debts one after another for nine years - first to one, then a few months later to another, then to a third moneylender - admits that he does not report them out of fear, but also because of distrust in institutions.
"If the policeman was giving me money at interest, how will he protect me from someone?" he asks.
He also recounts how, due to his initial gambling debt, which he thought he would easily repay, he sank deeper and deeper.
"The interest was rising rapidly. A day's delay meant a new fine, a new interest, a new threat. You think clans are at war, they cooperate - if I give interest to one of them, the other one knows. Let's say, I give 2.000 to one, the other one calls me the same day," he says.
The interviewee claims that they knew what they shouldn't have known - the exact day his salary would be deposited into his account.
“Not the day the company pays, but the day the money lands on me. They know exactly.”
He also claims that he checked to see if someone from the bank was notifying the interest rate collectors when his payments were due, by asking the company to delay them for a few days.
"No matter how late they were, there were no calls, but as soon as it was registered - here they are," he says.
"Vijesti" expects answers from two Montenegrin banks about this...
Trying to gather "what he's up to" in a conversation with a journalist, he recalls:
"No matter how much I paid back, the debt grew. Last year I added it all up, the debt was around 70.000 euros. My salary is 10.000 euros. I'm a captain. I did the math - I earned over 400.000. Almost all of that went to them. When I couldn't take it anymore, I borrowed money from the company, 30.000 euros, to calm the situation," he says.
Although he doesn't know how, he knows that today three people are asking him for money - one for around 23.000, two for 12.000 euros each.
He says he no longer knows where the principal ends and the interest begins.
"I no longer know what debt is and what interest is. I no longer know what life is. I come to my city and I'm not allowed to go for a walk with my wife and baby. That's why I wanted to report the loan sharks, but I can't do it anonymously, the police are asking me to publicly stand behind every word and become a clay pigeon," he said.
Bullet in a baby stroller
When my daughter was 25 days old, they left a bullet in her stroller, recalls the newspaper's interlocutor of events from last summer.
However, he never reported the incident. He says his wife has been traumatized ever since, and they live in constant fear.
When, due to work or any other reason, he is unavailable to his "creditors" and does not contact them, they come to his mother's door, to his wife's...
"If I don't answer the phone, no matter how far away I am, somewhere on the ocean, they come to my mother or wife and take what's in the house. They don't threaten them, as they tend not to threaten women, but they put a bullet in the stroller my wife was walking her baby in, with a message to call them. That's when you realize that the debt is no longer yours. The family becomes collateral."
He also adds that they increased his debt by not reporting to him at the agreed time.
"They disappear for a few days, and then they calculate the daily interest and add it to the principal. I know it's my own fault for getting into all this, but I don't know when enough is enough?" he asks.
He adds that he returns everything he can through the bank, leaving a trace.
"I write - interest on every payment."
He says he would be willing to tell everything to the institutions, but only with a guarantee of protection.
"If I had protection, I would say everything. But I have an eight-month-old child... If they were ready to kill or plan murders, they are ready for my child."
That's why today, he says, he's only trying to do one thing - to survive and pay off his debt, although he's no longer sure he'll succeed in any of that.
Family as collateral
The family becomes collateral, and the consequences are measured in lives - financial collapse, family breakups, depression, anxiety, say the interlocutors of "Vijesti".
And more than 400 respondents say they are aware of cases in which people, burdened by debts to moneylenders, have left the country or committed suicide.
"A million-dollar loan, a man committed suicide, and his brother went abroad to 'deal' in order to repay the debts," is one of the messages from the "Vijesti" poll.
They say it's not an isolated phenomenon, but a social pattern.
In tomorrow's issue, read how loan sharks lure young people into crime who cannot repay their debts, the confession of a Budva resident whose brother had to do jobs for drug dealers, and what the Police Department has to say about the problem...
See more:
Download the app and follow the news
FOLLOW US ON
