A businessman Veselin Vesko Barovic (73) was released yesterday to defend himself after being questioned at the Podgorica Basic State Prosecutor's Office on suspicion of committing the criminal offense of unauthorized possession of weapons and explosives, while a case is also being conducted against him in regular proceedings for tax evasion in the amount of 331.893,36 euros.
"Vijesti" learned that the prosecution determined that Barović possessed licenses for two of the found pistols, and that ammunition for automatic weapons was found in his illegal possession.
"The prosecution's practice is not to order detention for illegal ammunition, which does not mean that he will not be prosecuted for it," said an interlocutor of "Vijesti" from the ODT.
Barović was arrested the night before last at around 23 p.m., and the Police Directorate announced that he is suspected of evading capital gains tax in 2018, which, they claim, damaged the state budget by almost 332.000 euros.
"Officers of the Crime Prevention Sector - Department for Combating Corruption, Economic Crime, Financial Investigations and Suppression of Environmental Crime, in coordination with the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica, and with the support of the Tax Administration of Montenegro, after conducting comprehensive targeted activities, prosecuted VB due to the existence of grounds for suspicion that he committed the criminal offense of tax and contribution evasion," the police statement said.
According to investigators' suspicions, Barović, as an individual, purchased a seven percent stake in the capital of the company "C" in the legal entity "T" doo Podgorica for 98.000 euros, and then sold the same stake to the buyer SB for 3.785.704 euros.
According to the police, he did not report the difference between the purchase and sale price of the property in the amount of 3.687.704 euros within the legal deadline.
"In this way, he did not report legally acquired income from capital, and based on the calculation of capital gains tax for 2018, he evaded tax in the amount of 331.893,36 euros, thereby achieving unlawful material gain in the stated amount, to the direct detriment of the Budget of Montenegro," the Police Directorate specified.
The prosecutor will request an expert opinion in this case and "make a decision relatively quickly," said the source for "Vijesti".
As part of the national operation "Browing", and on the orders of the basic courts in Podgorica, Kotor and Danilovgrad, the police searched several apartments, houses and other buildings used by Barović in Podgorica, Danilovgrad and Budva.
On that occasion, two pistols, dozens of rounds of ammunition, and a magazine with 17 rounds of ammunition for a "Heckler & Koch" automatic weapon were seized, for which, it is alleged, he did not possess the appropriate permit.
By order of the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica, Barović was deprived of his liberty at 10:43 p.m. and brought before the acting state prosecutor within the legal deadline, after which he was released to defend himself at liberty.
After searching the house in Bandići, Barović was summoned to the building of the Crime Prevention Sector of the Police Directorate to give a statement as a suspect.
For more than three decades, he has been considered one of the closest friends of the former president of Montenegro. Milo Đukanović.
He was also mentioned in the indictment of the Italian prosecutor. Giuseppe Scelsi as one of the actors in the so-called tobacco smuggling during the nineties, which went through Montenegro.
During the mass voucher privatization, as the owner of "Eurofond", with a group of related persons and companies, he took over several Montenegrin companies, and was active in both domestic and regional capital markets.
Barović was one of the key figures in Montenegrin basketball for almost three decades - the president of the Budućnost Basketball Club during the club's greatest successes in the former state, as well as the president of the Basketball Association of Montenegro for several terms.
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