In the trunk to the court to sign the debt: Lending in Montenegro (23)

They put me in the trunk on April 3, 2014, drove me to the Basic Court building in Herceg Novi, and forced me to sign that I owed 112.000 euros to a fellow citizen, who is now no longer alive.

So for the News Bojo Sekaric The story is about the culmination of years of harassment that, according to his allegations, were inflicted on him by Herceg Novi loan sharks and their debt collectors, who have continued to haunt him to this day, trying to seize his property.

He borrowed 18.000 marks from his now deceased fellow citizen at the beginning of this millennium. He claims to have paid him back much more, including 50.000 euros that he once paid him in full...

Looking back, he says, he realizes that it was also part of the game, because he was looking for money after years of racketeering, in order to keep his restaurant in Igalo functional.

"When, in the whirlwind of war, I exchanged my property in Cavtat for Herceg Novi, I decided to do what I did in Croatia - to be a restaurateur. First I opened 'Petica', then 'Nautilus', and that's when the first problems started, they came every day." MV i PP with their entourage and when they had to pay, they said it was on the house account. The waiters called them 'Barons' and every day we had unpaid bills that said exactly that - Barons. I reported them to the police, but in vain. The policeman (identity known to the Vijesti editorial office) told me that they couldn't do anything to them," says Šekarić.

He recalls that he was trying at all costs to keep his job, and then a waiter appeared as a "benefactor" and offered to borrow money from his father-in-law, now deceased. B. S.

"He was an older guy who had money, I didn't know anything about him. I borrowed first 10.000 marks of the time, then another 8.000 marks. I paid him the interest regularly, month after month. This went on for years, during which I experienced terrible threats and inconveniences, including persecution involving four Bosnians who worked for him. I only know their nicknames - Plummet, Zemo, Chago i Yellow. Despite the fact that I 'served' my obligations, they chased me, waited for me in front of the bar, under the house. They sent me photos of their grandchildren during school holidays, with terrifying threats. I haven't slept for years because of them. When I tried to repay the entire debt, BS told me that it wasn't his money and that I no longer owed him, only the 18.000 that they had converted into euros...", says Šekarić.

He adds that he has suffered persecution, pressure and fear continuously for years, which is why he decided at one point to seek protection from the now deceased man from Nikšić, who was known for decades as the leader of the Montenegrin mafia.

"I told him everything and asked him to protect me from the four Bosnians, he told me: 'They'll be looking for my blood'. I didn't understand what that meant, so he explained that he could protect me, but that the Bosnian mafia would ask him for a favor in return - to kill someone, or to hand someone over to them. I was helpless, and they continued to take," says the Novalja native about the misery he has been experiencing for more than two and a half decades.

He also claims that, day after day, loan sharks took everything he managed to earn, constantly keeping him in fear - with threats to his family, to himself, with persecution...

"For years they took everything we earned. All that was left was to take away our roof over our heads, so on April 3, 2014, they came for that too. Zoka, Zemo, Čađo and Žuti kidnapped me, put me in the trunk of a car, and drove me to the Basic Court the day after my conversation with BS. When they pulled me out of the trunk, I felt a bit anxious, I couldn't believe what was happening in the middle of the city, in the middle of the day. It took me a while to come to my senses. As soon as I came to my senses, two of them took me inside. BS was waiting there with a prepared statement that I owed him 112.000 euros. The officer, with slightly longer hair, realized that something was wrong, because the two of them were practically standing behind my head, trying to keep me from speaking. He asked them what they needed, and they told him that we were all together. I signed because days before that they had been sending me photos of my little grandson, whom they had been following and school," he says.

Šekarić points out that he expected to be able to prove in court that he did not owe the money and that he had signed the statement under duress. However, that did not happen.

In vain, he explains, he addressed all competent institutions - the prosecutor's office and the courts, from the Basic to the Supreme Court, but also the Bar Association, to which he wrote, offering them, as he stated, evidence that his legal representative was working for the opposing side.

"Imagine how usurious the statement is, when the judge, even though I told her that the debt did not exist, on her own initiative reduced their claims from 112.000 to 45.000 euros, and they did not complain. True, due to threats that they would do something to my grandson, I was not allowed to say what I should have said in the courtroom, because I was not myself, maybe I blurted something out. I hope someone will understand that, because in those moments I just wanted to protect my family. I was hoping that there would be another hearing and that I would be able to tell the judge how the signing took place, but then the verdict came that I owed him 45.000 euros. Based on that verdict, they are still trying to take my apartment away, with the help of bailiffs," says the Novalja resident...

He explains that after the verdict, the terror continued.

"They abused me every day, waited for me, pressured me, threatened to slaughter me, kill me. However, that wasn't as scary as the fact that they were sending me to where my granddaughter was every day. They started calling me and saying - 'we saw Aleksa on vacation today', 'we saw Aleksa there', 'we saw Aleksa here'... Then I decided to give them 50.000 euros. That was on December 22, 2017. I remember exactly that it was a Friday. I gave the money to the Bosnians, BS was with them. When I gave them the money, they asked for more. They started to harass me, threatening to kill me, slaughter me, in various ways... Then, allegedly, they called someone in Belgrade and that someone, like, told them that they had taken a lot from Šeki. Both they and I knew that up until that moment, because of the 18.000 marks they had borrowed, they had taken everything we had. They let me go, and then continued to abuse me and my family with the help of institutions", he said.

He explains that he has been fighting a legal battle for years, and that during those proceedings he came to the conclusion that "the law firm representing the opposing side controls part of the court in Herceg Novi."

"Part of the Herceg Novi Basic Court is under the control of a law firm. I think they are shifting cases to those they control, because there is no other explanation for why I have not been able to prove for years that I am a victim of usurious terror and fake contracts and statements. No one, including the prosecutor's office to which I reported the judge, the bailiff, my lawyer, all those on the opposite side, can take the side of the victim, but rather take the side of the oppressors who take away everything they want. I guess all of them, including the bailiff, who told me on the first day - 'Sheki, I can't believe they did this to you', and then started the enforcement procedure, clearly have no clean record here," he says.

The Novljanin also provided Vijesti with a verdict that, as he claims, was not issued by the judge listed in that court document.

When, as he states, he found out, on October 29, 2025, he filed a criminal complaint for forging an official document.

"The 'reasons' for the rejection did not state at all why they decided that way, but only stated a formulaic statement that it was indisputably established that the verdict was reached in a legally conducted procedure, although the judge, as a witness, claims that he did not write that verdict, but the prosecutor did not find it appropriate to question him on those circumstances, nor did he conduct any action to collect evidence in that direction," says Šekarić.

Vijesti tried to contact the now former judge yesterday.

Šekarić, continuing his story about the elusiveness of justice, said that he hopes that any prosecutor's office in Montenegro will be interested in investigating everything that has happened since he borrowed the money until today.

"I am not asking for debt forgiveness, because there is no debt. I am asking for a fair trial, in which I would at least prove to someone that we have been victims for more than two and a half decades. Now all that remains for me is to repeat the question I write in the complaints - is any state prosecutor's office competent to assess the legality of any court decision, any court in Montenegro?!", he said.

His story confirms the allegations of the security sector, which Vijesti wrote about in recent days - that they have registered the main risks of this illegal business, including enormously high interest rates, which exceed 20 percent on a monthly basis, then intimidation and violence, as well as the loss of property of debtors, or victims.

"In the event of a delay, loan sharks often use threats, physical force or confiscation of real estate - houses, apartments, vehicles, etc., which serve as unofficial collateral. Most often, fictitious purchase and sale contracts are concluded with notaries so that the loan sharks can take over the victim's property if the debt is not repaid... Loan sharks in Montenegro use specific methods to 'legalize' these criminal acts - fictitious contracts with notaries, who agree that the victim signs a contract for the sale of an apartment or land in front of them, instead of a loan contract. If the money is not returned on time, the property is automatically transferred to the loan shark. In addition, doubling the debt by calculating interest on interest makes repayment impossible in just a few months, which leads to the victim's complete dependence," interlocutors from the security sector previously said.

Research by "Vijesti" shows that debt bondage does not only happen to the "irresponsible". Anyone can fall into it - both the calm and the hardworking, both the hardworking and the responsible, both the strong and the weak. The loan sharks are just waiting for a moment of weakness.

This is confirmed by the survey results - some citizens took on debt out of necessity, when institutional assistance was unavailable or too slow, while a significant number went into debt to maintain a lifestyle beyond their realistic means or to cover gambling losses, decisions that today, in a conversation with a journalist, they recognize as serious personal mistakes.

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.

Police have stepped up operations

In the midst of a feuilleton about the scale of usury in Montenegro, the Police Directorate announced that, on the orders of the director of that security institution, Lazar Šćepanović, two special teams have been formed with the task of systematically and thoroughly examining all cases of usury reported so far, but also to investigate how their colleagues acted in these cases in the previous period.

They also stated that the task of these teams is to take all legally prescribed measures and actions in new cases, with special care and sensitivity, in order to protect the personal and property safety of citizens.

Emphasizing that "the current investigative journalistic work, published through a feuilleton on the decades-long problem of usury in Montenegro, has additionally opened up the important question of the institutional response to this negative social phenomenon," the UP said that:

"Continuously and systematically implement long-term intelligence and investigative projects "Loan" and "Značka", aimed at detecting, clarifying and prosecuting perpetrators of the criminal offenses of usury and related forms of crime, collecting and analyzing operational and intelligence data, as well as directing efficient police and prosecutorial activities, including checks on possible abuses by police officers linked to criminal structures"...

That day, they emphasized that they would further intensify operational activities to identify and prosecute loan sharks and that they would not allow injured parties to suffer fear, pressure, or violence from individuals - thugs or loan sharks.

They urged citizens to report usury through the established contact point with a police officer and communicate directly with the Department responsible for combating this criminal offense, via the email address: korupcija.ekonomski@up.gov.me.

In tomorrow's "Vijesti" read - a Vijesti interviewee recounts how he learned that a verdict was "planted" for the judge to sign.