Instructions issued by the Supreme State Prosecutor Milorad Marković adopted on March 3, 2025, for the conduct of state prosecutors' offices in financial surveys and financial investigations, has already yielded visible results in the first year of implementation, as the number of cases in the fight against criminally acquired property has tripled.
Data from the Prosecutorial Council report shows that last year saw a significant jump in the number of financial investigations and surveys initiated, as well as a significant expansion of the practice of temporary seizure of property, which points to the conclusion that after the Special State Prosecutor's Office, other prosecutors' offices have finally woken up.
Statistics show that there has been a serious turnaround - 69 financial investigations have been launched against 190 individuals and 31 legal entities, as well as 35 financial investigations against 115 individuals and 15 legal entities. For comparison, a year earlier, only 23 financial investigations were launched against 106 individuals and five legal entities.
The report on the work of the Prosecutorial Council states that the growth in initiated financial investigations and surveys indicates that the VDP instruction, which more precisely defined the obligations of managers, prosecutors, contact points and coordinators, directly affected the efficiency and proactivity in the work of state prosecutors' offices in this segment of work.
"It is evident that the issued Instruction has influenced the efficiency and proactivity in the work of state prosecutors in terms of initiating financial investigations and investigations," reads the Report on the work of the Prosecutorial Council, which was submitted to the Parliament on the last day of March.
It is particularly significant that the growth did not remain just at the statistical level - in 22 cases last year, temporary seizure of property was proposed, and the court ordered this measure in 16 cases, while the decision is still awaited in the remaining cases.
Last year, courts, based on proposals from prosecutors, issued decisions to temporarily freeze real estate with a total area of 1.833.042 square meters in Montenegro. This includes a wide range of property – from apartments, business premises and garages, to hotels, land, oil pipeline facilities, orchards, swimming pools, warehouses. In addition, more than 100 vehicles, 34 luxury watches and large sums of money in various currencies were seized.
SDT bears the brunt
The report states that the greatest burden, as in previous years, continues to be borne by the Special State Prosecutor's Office, which launched financial investigations in 26 cases against 147 individuals and one legal entity in 2025. When cases from previous years are added, the SDT had as many as 91 cases against 860 individuals and 193 legal entities in its work.
It was in the SDT that the most concrete results were recorded when it comes to temporary measures to secure property - in 32 cases, proposals were submitted to prohibit the disposal of real estate with a total area of 1.911.986 square meters, and in 26 cases, the court has already issued first-instance decisions, accepting measures relating to 91 percent of the total area covered by the proposals of special prosecutors.
"Financial investigations were concluded in five cases against 11 persons, of which four cases against seven individuals were concluded by issuing an order to suspend the financial investigation, while one financial investigation case against four persons was transferred to the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica," the report states.
The Special State Prosecutor's Office seized more than 69 million euros, over two million Russian rubles, more than 192 thousand dollars, as well as smaller amounts in Swiss francs and British pounds in 22 cases. Some of this money had been blocked previously, but was only confirmed by the court through security measures in this reporting period.
Of the 22 cases in which money was frozen, five were formed based on suspicious transaction notifications, so the SDT requested a temporary suspension of payments from commercial banks.
In just one case, as stated in the TS work report, the SDT seized almost 460 thousand euros in cash.
"The good practice of continuously conducting financial investigations in parallel with criminal investigations was continued. The SDT's financial investigations were conducted efficiently and successfully, as evidenced by the exceptional results in the reporting period in terms of the total area of frozen real estate of natural and legal persons. At the same time, the practice of initiating criminal proceedings arising from financial investigations was established. During the financial investigation, data was obtained that led to the initiation of investigations against the same defendants and on suspicion that they had committed the criminal offense of money laundering. This is, among other things, one of the reasons why better results were achieved in money laundering cases in the reporting year, in terms of the number of persons against whom criminal proceedings were initiated and indictments were filed," the report on the work of the Prosecutorial Council states.
The Work Report also states that the SDT submitted data from two cases to the Protector of Property and Legal Interests of Montenegro, so that, if necessary, the Protector could submit a proposal for determining a temporary measure to secure property and legal claims against the defendants in accordance with Article 243, paragraph 1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
In another financial investigation case, the SDT submitted an initiative to the Protector to submit a proposal for the determination of a temporary measure, and after submitting the proposal, the court issued a decision determining a temporary measure.
"The above examples represent good practice in the work of the Special State Prosecutor's Office, which effectively and in a significantly shorter time frame, compared to acting in accordance with the Law on the Confiscation of Property Gains Acquired through Criminal Activity, achieves the securing of property-legal claims, especially since the state was the victim in the aforementioned criminal case," the report states.
Image uneven
At the level of other prosecutors' offices, judging by the statistical figures from the Report on the Work of the Prosecutorial Council, the picture is very uneven.
The Higher State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica initiated nine financial investigations against 11 individuals, but none of these investigations were completed during the reporting period.
The State Prosecutor's Office of Podgorica also has 28 financial investigations from previous years against 42 persons, and four financial investigations against six persons were suspended in 2025 (reasons for suspension - there are no conditions for submitting a request for permanent confiscation of property gains). Of the nine financial investigations initiated in the reporting period, none have been completed. In four financial investigations against six persons, financial investigations were initiated after the issuance of an order to initiate a financial investigation. During 2025, investigations were initiated in two cases against two persons, one of which was concluded with an official note, and the other case is still ongoing.
Three financial investigations and one investigation have been launched at the Higher State Prosecutor's Office in Bijelo Polje, and as in Podgorica, no case has an epilogue by the end of 2025.
Basic State Prosecutor's Offices are also recording an increase in activity in this segment of work, and they acted in particular more agilely in the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica and the Bijelo Polje ODT, which in the reporting year initiated financial investigations in 16 cases against 37 persons, of which 16 were legal entities and 21 were natural persons.
The Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica filed a case in which a temporary measure was proposed for a 119 m2 apartment and garage, and the court adopted the proposal.
Other prosecutors' offices have a somewhat more modest performance, and the balance of initiated financial investigations in the Cetinje and Kolašin ODTs is zero, and only one financial investigation has been opened in the Royal Capital.
The Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Bar has opened two financial investigation cases, one of which was closed without opening a financial investigation, while the financial investigation case is still ongoing.
The report suggests that one of the reasons for the better results is the introduction of a more personalized model for monitoring the implementation of the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office's instructions. Coordinators from the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office monitored implementation on a quarterly basis, submitted reports and held meetings with the Supreme State Prosecutor.
The state's paw on three cars, a forest and a meadow
Despite the more agile work of prosecutors to identify and block assets believed to be acquired through crime at an early stage of investigations, court decisions on the permanent seizure of assets remain rare due to the lack of final judgments.
In the reporting period, a request was filed in one case under the jurisdiction of the Special State Prosecutor's Office for the permanent confiscation of property gains acquired through criminal activity.
The property relates to two passenger vehicles and real estate: forests of 2.570 m2 and meadow of 1.771 m2.
Additionally, the Higher Court in Podgorica issued a decision permanently confiscating the Porsche Cayenne jeep.
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