I've imprisoned one, I'll imprison you too: Greenwashing in Montenegro (29)

Until recently, I knew exactly what day it was, even though 15 years had passed during which I had dreamed hundreds of times. BT how, in front of my mother, in our living room, he cocks a gun, puts the barrel to my forehead and says: "I killed someone and put them in prison, I don't have a problem with you either"...

Because of that day and the incident with the loan shark from Podgorica, from whom he had previously borrowed 800 euros, with a monthly interest rate of 15 percent, the forty-year-old from the capital decided, as he claims, to tell Vijesti about his experience with loan sharks...

He adds that he has long since paid off his debts, that he left his hometown and his country 13 years ago, but that the memory of that day does not fade.

The then twenty-five-year-old, manager of a famous nightclub, in almost daily contact with local loan sharks, is today far from that world, outside the borders of Montenegro...

He first borrowed money at the age of 20, from three local loan sharks he met at a club. He spent the money on a bookie.

"Until then, I was depositing a euro or five, but then you get into a situation where you earn a little more, so you raise the stake. 50 or 100 euros per ticket, then I get paid and need to give some money home, so since I keep seeing those who gave money at interest, I take it from them... I take it from them, because it's available to me. It started with small amounts and ended up with several thousand euros of principal, with three interest-earners - P. C., KM "And the third one, tattooed, from the Old Airport, I can't remember his name after all this time," says the newspaper's interlocutor.

He specifies that in addition to his debt to them, he also had a loan, that he borrowed money from friends.

"That lasted until I couldn't service the interest on several places, the loan, to pay back money to friends... I owed a total of five or six thousand euros. That's when I told my family. It's always like that, the family is the last to find out everything, and mine was too - they were the last to find out everything. We sold some part of the property in the countryside, paid off all the debts. I never had any problems with these three, and it happened that I was a day, two or three late with the interest. Only KM knew how to humiliate me when he met me with someone in society, then he would come up to me and say - 'Why don't you pay back the debt?', or something like that. He did that whenever he met me with someone and that was the only thing that was cruel the whole time, but I didn't have any special problems," adds the Podgorica native.

He states that, a few years after he got out of debt, loan sharks re-entered his life - again because of the bookmaker...

"I was making quite a bit of money during that period, but then I started playing tickets again. Not recreationally, but with larger payments. Then, at the age of 25, I re-entered that circle and borrowed money at interest. That time, I came across cruel people, and for the first time I felt what fear for life was. I started receiving calls and threats every day, although I didn't run away, but returned the money. With a day or two delay, but I returned it. In total, in several places, I owed about 8.000 euros, of which 800 euros to the cruelest person I have ever met in my life - BT, and because of whom I look at all this with contempt," adds the Podgorica resident...

Talking about how he met BT, he remembers that in those days he needed 800 euros to "close" the interest and that he asked a friend if he had anywhere to get it.

He states that this friend told him that he had a friend who worked with it, and that T. made money very quickly...

"People around me, my friend who is a famous football player and some others, owed 50.000 euros each in interest, my debt was big for me and my family even then, but it was ridiculous for those who gave us money... He brought 800 euros, I paid him back 120 euros for two months, the third month I was a day late, went to him and told him I would bring it tomorrow. It seemed to me like with the people I borrowed money from for the first time and told them - increase it by 10, 20 euros... I paid him back the next day, the next month I was two days late and went to him, not to escape him or ask him to extend it, but to say that I would bring the money that day, when the payment is due, and tomorrow at the latest. What happened that day is the reason why I recognized myself in all the texts, in this research, the reason why I still can't forget the barrel of a gun to my forehead, how he looked at me while asking if I wanted to "...kills... And all this for 120 euros," he says, his chin trembling...

The Podgorica resident adds that he went near the stadium under Gorica to look for BT and explained to him that he would receive 120 euros that day.

"I told him that, he said it was okay, but that I should sit with him for a drink and breakfast in the bar under the stadium. I told him that I couldn't, that I had to get back to work and that I had only come so that he wouldn't think I was gone... He almost kidnapped me and took me with him for several hours, during which he threatened to kill me twice, humiliated me... First we were in one cafe, then another, then he called a friend MN, who was the owner of the betting shop 'P.' at the time, and talked to him so that I could hear and be scared. He asked him if he had anything to do for his daily wage, because he had a debtor who had not brought the money. When he told him that he did not, he asked him to drop me off at his house... After that, he humiliated me, took me to the hairdressers where I have always had my hair cut, asked if they knew me and when they answered in the affirmative, asked them if they would give me money for me. When they said they did not, he took me out of the salon and brought me into the betting shop Š., which I often visited and did the same. He did not ask him for money, he asked if he knew me and when he answered that we were neighbors, he took out a gun, cocked it and held the barrel to my forehead", says the Podgorica resident about his first encounter with serious threats.

Stating that it was the first time in his life that he had encountered such cruelty, he describes a man from Podgorica who was convicted of murder, how he behaved, how he was threatened...

"A debt of 800 euros is so minor that I couldn't imagine that I would get hurt, especially not if I was already paying him interest and came to tell him that I would bring him 120 euros that day or the next day. However, that's when I realized how cruel this creature was. He held the barrel of a loaded gun to my forehead and said: 'Do you want me to kill you now, right now, on the spot? You know that I served time for a man, I served my time until the last minute. It's not a problem for me for you either.' I told him that I would give him the money, that it might have already been paid or that I would borrow it to bridge the gap. He took the barrel of the gun from my forehead and made him drive me home... He parked in front of the building and followed me into the apartment of my mother, a pensioner, a woman who raised the two of us alone, because my father died when we were children. He went into the living room, took out the gun, loaded it again and asked her: 'Do you want me to kill him now? Here on the spot, in front of you?' Even today, the mother cannot recover from that shock," says the Podgorica resident.

He adds that they repaid BT the entire debt on the same day, but that this situation completely changed his life...

"I stayed in Podgorica for less than two years and left, I got away from this environment that was only bent on judging, labeling someone and dragging them down. That situation changed my life completely, because everything that happened before that stopped in those few hours. I formed my family, normalized my life and started to think soberly about everything that happened, so that it wouldn't happen again... Moneylenders were available to me then, no one had to guarantee for me - I asked them and they brought it or sent for someone. I didn't have to pledge my property, they started doing that later. Maybe I was nice to them as the manager of a popular club, someone who has a lot and spends a lot on going out, traveling, betting... and who they could very easily catch in their clutches... I knew who they were and when I first took money, because I heard stories of what they do to people - beat them up, break them... but I only realized that after a day with BT and after I almost ostracized myself from "The city where I grew up and saw everything from a distance... I have never committed a misdemeanor, let alone a crime. I am not a troublemaker, I am not a problem. I have never reported anyone, not even him, and that was solely out of fear for the lives of my mother, brother and mine. That was caused by his cruelty," says the interlocutor of Vijesti...

While, during the conversation, he recounts the images that he has been trying to erase from his memory for a decade and a half, he recounts how he still dreams at night of the scene from the betting shop and the living room in his mother's apartment.

"It was such cruelty that I will never forget that day. For years I woke up with a nightmare. And when I had my children, I dreamed of him, woke up at night... Although I never saw BT after that, not in the hallways, not in a photo, not anywhere, and today I clearly see his face, the mole on his chin and cruelty that I have never seen in my life. It is the worst thing a person can experience. And imagine, for that money. I know all kinds of stories, but if someone did it for 800 euros, I would not have heard of it... I would like to tell this publicly, on a show, to tell that day from the moment I got up to the look in my mother's eyes when he put the barrel of a gun to my forehead in front of her, to her eyes that I can still see as they were at that moment... To tell what a mark it left on my family and what consequences it left, to talk about my mother's face that day, because I will never forget it. I will never forget his face, his cruelty and cruelty, which I would never wish on anyone to experience", adds the interviewee of the newspaper...

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.

"You are the evil one"...

The Podgorica resident recalls that a few years after he left Montenegro, he met MN, whom the loan shark had called on the day he almost kidnapped him.

"I wanted to let him know from which story I knew him, so I called him. He asked me where I was from and if we knew each other, so I told him that I was from Podgorica and that we had not met, but that I knew who he was. I told him - 'You brought that evil (bookmaking) to Pogdorica, and I know you because I am the one who BT called you to do something for you, and you gave him a salary.' He didn't say anything, he didn't have to, it was important to me that he told me where I was, because BT showed cruelty to the extreme that day...", he says...

Woman from Nikšić evicted because of uncle's debt

The ancestral property of a family from Nikšić passed into the hands of a local moneylender, MR, because one of the family members had a debt of 9.000 euros.

This was told to Vijesti by the debtor's cousin, stating that none of them even knew they had a debtor in the house...

"After my grandfather's death, there was no inheritance. The property remained like that, because no one took care of it. We realized there was a problem five years ago, when the usurers came to Glibavac and kicked his mother out of half of the house. Then, after checking the Land Registry, he realized that our fathers had not transferred the property, so they came to kick me out too," the woman told Vijesti.

He explains that he is trying to get the property back through the court, but that he doesn't know if he will succeed...

"I don't know how much money he took from MR, who usually lends money at interest, but I know that some document says it was 9.000 euros. Apparently, when he didn't pay him back, he came for the house. First he kicked out his mother, then he took another old house, and then he kicked me out of our part of the house. Now everything has been transferred to him, even though the value is many times greater," she says.

She adds that she did not report the loan shark to the police because she did not know what to do.

"My cousin transferred it to them without telling anyone and ran away from them. I didn't even know that our part of the house had been transferred, nor that they would come to evict me, because they didn't touch me. Then one day they just came and showed me the papers that it was their house. Now I'm trying to get it back, but I don't know if I'll be able to get my property back," she said...

In tomorrow's "News", read how the courts allegedly kept silent about key allegations and evidence in the proceedings against the loan sharks...