Usury in Montenegro does not affect one specific social group. People of all ages and backgrounds take money from usurers - out of necessity, because of debts, sometimes because of bad decisions. Almost all, however, share the same outcome: debt that does not decrease, property that disappears, and fear that remains long after the money is gone. And often tragedy - divorces, suicide attempts, suicides...
In some cases, it all starts as a small loan, and ends with lost houses, stolen ancestral properties, fear in your own home, and the realization that in this "game" you are not a debtor, but a hostage.
"And when you add it all up, half your life has passed because one day, from some 'nice gentleman', you took 200 for 250 euros, for two weeks."
That's just one of the sentences that "Vijesti" heard during the research, which shows how quickly people fall into the net of loan sharks and how difficult it is to get out of it.
Few people get out of debt without serious consequences and trauma. Many have taken their own lives, and their families have continued to suffer persecution, because debt, like suffering, does not disappear when the coffin is lowered into the ground. Only then, in many cases, does chaos ensue.
In this misery, a survey by "Vijesti" shows, the family has no time to understand or mourn the loss of their family member. Often, before the third morning, they realize that the debt has "ended" with organized crime groups.
Then it stops being a question of money and becomes a question of control. There is no negotiation with the clan. New interest comes, a new “loan” to cover the old one, new paper, new sales. The debt is not reduced, because that is not its purpose – the purpose is to keep the debtor in the jaws.
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In this logic, the debtor becomes a tool - to have his real estate seized, to forcibly transfer his property to those close to the usurer, to perform tasks on his orders, to remain silent and suffer.
Messages are understood even when they are not spoken directly. Warnings can sometimes include watching children during school breaks, training, passing by a house late at night, arriving in the middle of the night...
And when someone tries to report it, they risk the report reaching where it shouldn't - to those against whom it was filed, wherever they are: at a luxury destination, on the run, or behind the walls of Skopje.
The list of loan sharks includes names that, according to security assessments, have been linked for years to this illegal business and the taking over of debtors' valuable property.
Information from the security sector to "Vijesti" shows that all organized crime groups are also associated with this type of crime, and in this way, for years, they "fertilize" the money acquired through drug and cigarette smuggling.
"Loaning money at high interest rates has provided disproportionate benefits to moneylenders, especially due to the fact that due to the inability of debtors to repay their debts, moneylenders are acquiring a significant number of high-value real estate properties in the territory of Montenegro, Serbia, countries in the region, European Union countries and beyond," security sector sources say.
There are hundreds of names in their databases, however, when it comes to the region, one name stands out - Slobodan Kascelan.
According to the testimonies of several people interviewed by "Vijesti", those who tried to file a report but, they claim, ran into a wall also fell into his network. Others were not allowed to. One of the reports was expressly rejected by the now-indicted special prosecutor. Sasa Cadjenovic.
In the second case, which has been going on for years before the Podgorica High Court, Kašćelan is accused of having, at the end of May 2010, Igor Božović organized a criminal group whose members were involved in drug trafficking, extortion, loan sharking, money laundering and bribery.
Kašćelan has dominated for decades
Security officers in charge of investigating loan sharking have registered that, when it comes to the organized criminal group Kavački Clan - "one of its leaders, Slobodan Kašćelan, has dominated this area for decades."
Their data shows that this Kotor resident has been, for a long time, one of the most exposed individuals in Montenegro and beyond, in terms of usury.
"Especially at a time when the current Kavačka OKG was a single entity with Škaljara."
Investigators say that in this way he acquired an enormous fortune, estimated at tens of millions of euros.
They also registered who his associates were in that criminal business, how the former SP police officer was his extended arm and gave out money at interest, but also how and to whom the property he stole was registered...
"Loaning money at high interest rates allowed him and numerous members of organized crime groups to benefit disproportionately, especially due to the debtors' inability to repay the money, which is why they took a significant number of high-value real estate properties from them in Montenegro, Serbia, other countries in the region, European countries and beyond... When it comes to usury, Kašćelan is one of the most exposed in Montenegro and beyond, dating back to the period when the current organized crime group Kavački Clan was a single criminal entity with the Škaljari... In this way, he acquired enormous material and financial wealth, the value of which is estimated at several tens of millions of euros, namely ownership of a large number of residential buildings and valuable land plots in the areas of Kotor, Budva, Cetinje, Belgrade, Novi Sad..., as well as millions of dollars in cash that are 'fertilized' with interest and further, expensive vehicles... Data indicate that Kašćelan has a large number of real estate properties 'seized' on the basis of usury, which are formally registered in the names of persons close to him - MV, N. K., D.K., DK, NP and others", registered by security services...
"Vijesti" has learned that authorities believe that the leader of the Kavčani gang acquired a number of valuable properties through deliberate fraud, purposefully, intentionally, by not taking over the agreed installments and convincing his "clients" that he still had time.
"And when the deadline signed in the contract expired, Kašćelan would put pressure on his debtors to pay the total claims, or else they would have to sign consents for the transfer of ownership under the registered mortgages," it was explained to "Vijesti"...
Operational data shows that a businessman from Nikšić (identity known to the editorial team) once borrowed a million euros from this Kotor resident, at high interest...
Sources from the security sector also state that, in addition to Kašćelan, other leaders of the Kavač clan are also lending money at interest - Radoje Switzerland i Ljubo Milović, including ONLY the father of Zvicer's close associate.
That this criminal group is engaged in loan sharking is also shown by their mutual correspondence on the once protected Sky application, which "Vijesti" has access to.
However, all of this results in few reports, because, as the Police Directorate explains, the most common obstacles to detecting and prosecuting loan sharking are the lack of cooperation of the injured parties, giving up on reporting, and failure to report the crime.
An additional problem is obtaining evidence, given the alleged methods of covering up traces and informal methods of execution.
A survey by "Vijesti" shows that people of all age groups, even those over 65, have experience with debt bondage...
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.
The report reaches the cell before it reaches the prosecutor.
The family from Boka Bay did not fall into debt, but into a vicious cycle of being swindled by one moneylender after another, every attempt to report it to the police made the situation worse - before they could return home, the complete statement given to the inspectors was read out from behind bars in Skopje, to the head of a Kotor clan, the very one they had reported.
It used to happen, according to the interviewee of "Vijesti", that while sitting in the police station, he would receive an SMS from the Spusk prison: "We know where you are and what you are doing there."
Their agony began in 2014. When they took their first money, they thought they were getting into debt that would allow them to earn as much as possible by improving their tourism offering. Years later, they realized that they had entered a cycle that could not be broken by selling, reporting to the police, or paying interest. Because debt to loan sharks is a control mechanism.
"No matter how much we gave, we are still in debt. And still. At first we thought it was just about money, now we know that the leader of a clan, who for years we didn't even know we owed him money, actually wants to take our house that is being washed away by the waves. He simply won't let us pay off our debt, in any way. In addition, to further worsen my situation, his loan sharks and debt collectors, as well as those who do his dirty work for him, who are actually lawyers, notaries, or are in institutions, even tried to turn my family against me by saying that I borrowed the money for drugs or gambling, and not for renovations," says the Bokelj.
In an interview with a journalist, he admits that at first he believed that the "loan" could be a bridge to a better job, that the season would cover the gap, that the renovation would pay off the investment, that the debt would be closed as soon as an apartment or plot of land was sold. But he realized that he had put a noose around himself and his family's neck.
You never know how much you owe.
In their case, they say, the interest rates were such that every month was a new loss. You don't pay back the principal, you pay off the right not to be called that day, not to come to your house, so that the children can sleep peacefully. And as soon as you're late, you don't pay back what you took, but what they write down.
"The worst thing is that you never know how much you owe. They have their own calculations. You have nothing. No papers, no receipts, no signatures. Just their word, coming home at dawn, taking pictures of the property, making estimates... The occupation of our lives and finally a call from a 'friend' who lent me money to introduce me to the man who was 'helping' me. I got in the car, I didn't know where I was going until they drove me to the clan's house. Then it became clear to me who I owed, who the people were who were passing me and my family in cars with tinted windows, a gun in the passenger seat... Then I was offered a gun which I didn't take, thinking that someone might have been killed with that weapon or would be, then they told me - now you get in the car and go to the vanguard. I didn't know who or what I was the vanguard for, we were just driving somewhere, and there was another car behind us", he says...
When they realized they couldn't get out of debt, they started selling off the assets they had accumulated over generations - a piece of land, then another, then what was being rented out, then what was supposed to be left to the children. It was the same every time. The money went away the same day. The debt remained. The wheel doesn't stop with a sale, it just turns faster.
They soon realized that someone always knew when the sale was going to happen, when the family needed to sign, when they needed to withdraw the money, in order to hand it over to the moneylender.
It's as if information is leaking out before they even say it in their own home. It's as if it's not just about the loan sharks, but about the network.
There were also threats, sometimes from the clan chief's wife, claims the interviewee of "Vijesti". These threats were uttered as advice - "Think about the children. So that they don't grow up without a father."
When they tried to find a way out, to report everything to the Novo police, the clan told them:
"You have no one to complain to. We are stronger than the police. We are the state."
"Who should we report them to if they tell us that? If the prosecutor does nothing for years? If my statement arrives in the prison cell before I return home from the police? If they told me who in the police is working for them? If they threaten me from the pre-trial detention center where they have phones? If they are driving away buyers and investors who could stop this agony by buying just the first floor of the house or my plot of land?" he asks.
He points out that, in a country where his clan shows him almost daily that it is stronger than the state, it is quite certain that he will also lose his house:
"The family home where my children are growing up, where their school books and notebooks are, pictures of my father... The home where we sleep awake listening to the sound of cars, checking every noise and step, through whose windows we look to see if they are coming. There were moments when I wanted to take justice into my own hands, but my mother threatened to report me so that after who knows how many hundreds of thousands of euros returned, I wouldn't lose my life... And I have no problem reporting all this again, but to whom? Just let someone tell me who to report this network in which the intermediaries are often reputable - those who complete the papers, those who 'help', those who have notaries, lawyers, appraisers, friends in banks. How can I prove that I have repaid more than I ever borrowed if they still claim to be the state?" asks the "Vijesti" interlocutor...
We fell into slavery.
That's why, he adds, it's important to speak out that "we haven't fallen into debt, but into slavery"...
In an interview with a journalist, the man's mother doesn't talk about money. She talks about how she knelt in front of her son to stop him from doing something, how she ended up in therapy, and how her daughter-in-law comes home crying every day...
He talks about how they sold plot by plot, house by house, how they gave away cash, cars, business premises, and the debt didn't decrease. It just changed names. It just changed hands. It just grew.
The mother describes how people with titles have crept into their lives - lawyers, notaries, appraisers, municipal officials. Those who "finish the paperwork", photograph the property without the owner's knowledge, advise, mediate, notify when to come to the office. And those who, as she claims, inform the loan sharks when the contract is signed, so that they can come and collect the money.
There is no pathos in her statement, only the desire to save her son and his family - the most valuable thing.
"A buyer came in the other day for the first floor of a house, changed his mind after one call and told us he couldn't buy it. It's the same with investors, with real estate agents... They get called from prison, or by the agents of those who are in prison, and they just disappear," she says....
Whoever lends money or other consumable items and thereby contracts a disproportionate material benefit shall be punished by imprisonment for up to three years and a fine, reads the description of the criminal offense of "usury" in the Criminal Code (CC) of Montenegro.
If the usurer "takes advantage of the poor financial situation, difficult circumstances, necessity, frivolity or insufficient ability to reason of the injured party", he will be punished with imprisonment from three months to three years and a fine.
The Criminal Code stipulates that a loan shark can be punished with imprisonment from six months to five years and a fine if serious consequences have occurred for the injured party or the perpetrator has obtained material gain in an amount exceeding three thousand euros.
Seven loan sharks jailed, four given suspended sentences
Despite the scale of the problem with usury, a total of 39 court cases have been conducted before all Montenegrin courts in the last five years. Only 16 have been resolved with final judgment, the rest are ongoing.
"Regarding case law, each court has a separate department for case law issues," the Judicial Council explained to "Vijesti".
Providing information on the defendants in those cases, they explained that 11 of them had been convicted.
Four received suspended sentences and seven received prison sentences, according to data from the Judicial Council.
In three cases, the defendants were acquitted, in one the proceedings were suspended, and criminal charges against two were dropped...
In tomorrow's issue, read how lawyers and notaries help loan sharks, what the Chamber of Notaries says about it, and what one of the victims who had to leave Montenegro and start life anew under a foreign sky, with a new identity...
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