22 cases of usury under scrutiny

In 22 separate cases, police are trying to uncover and prosecute people suspected of usury, following the money trail and investigating businesses suspected of dragging citizens into debt bondage.

A specialized team for combating usury handles cases in coordination with the competent prosecutor's offices, and investigations are initiated both upon reports from citizens and ex officio.

"In coordination with the competent state prosecutor's offices, police officers of the Specialized Team for Suppression of Usury are acting in 22 cases. Police officers act both upon reports from citizens and ex officio, when there is suspicion that the criminal offense of usury has been committed. All cases in which the Specialized Team is acting are in progress, in coordination with the competent state prosecutor's offices," the Police Directorate responded to "Vijesti"

Among these cases is a report from one of the interlocutors of "Vijesti", who, due to a loan of only 200 euros from a work colleague, as he claims, ended up under pressure from a person who began demanding a much larger amount from him.

"The case filed based on the report ** is in the investigation phase," the Police Directorate responded.

The report was filed a few months ago, after the injured party began receiving threatening messages from a person who, instead of the 200 euros he had borrowed from a colleague, first asked for 3.600 euros, and then began to further increase the alleged debt.

In the messages that "Vijesti" had access to, the threats were not only directed at him, but also at his family members.

He was also told that he no longer owed his colleague anything, because the claim, as he was told, was "taken over" by the very person who had been sending him threatening messages...

According to the police, no report was filed with the specialized team against a loan shark from a Podgorica suburb, who was pointed out by the newspaper's interlocutors...

"Vijesti" expects additional responses to the report against the Danilovgrad loan shark.

Teams formed in the midst of the feuilleton

Specialized police teams for combating usury were formed on February 14, 2026, by order of the Director of the Police Directorate. Lazar Šćepanović, in the midst of "News" feuilleton on usury, which began publication on January 28th.

The police then welcomed "the professional and responsible investigative work of the media, which contributes to raising public awareness of this problem and encourages institutional responses in the interest of society as a whole."

The "Vijesti" feuilleton showed that loan sharking is not a job reserved only for people from the criminal underworld, nor is it a phenomenon limited to one social group or part of Montenegro.

Victims' testimonies, data from the security sector, and cases that the newspaper has been investigating for months have shown that people connected to this business can be found in almost all social spheres - among members of organized crime groups, civil servants, police officers, professors, and people from the media, while in some businesses, lawyers and notaries are also mentioned as helpers.

Suspicions that usury has penetrated institutions have now been given a concrete example - in early April, a police officer was arrested. Vladimir Jovic, who is suspected by his colleagues of having taken advantage of the victim's poor financial situation to obtain around 160.000 euros in interest. After his arrest, the police confiscated his service weapon and badge.

This case further exposed one of the problems that "Vijesti"'s interlocutors have been pointing out since the beginning of the series, that victims often remain silent not only out of fear of loan sharks, but also out of distrust in the institutions to which they should report them.

Sources from the security sector summed up the problem by saying that "loan sharks are present in almost all social spheres." The research also showed the other side of the same phenomenon - their victims do not belong to any one social or economic group, but also that debt bondage does not only happen to the "irresponsible." Anyone can fall into it - both the peaceful and the hardworking, both the hardworking and the responsible, both the strong and the weak. 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.

What does the law say?

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.

The same article of the law prescribes a sentence of one to eight years, and a fine, for those who obtain benefits exceeding 30.000 euros by committing this criminal offense.

In early September, Podgorica Vasilije Bozovic He was sentenced in the first instance to a single prison sentence of three years and five months and a fine of 10.000 euros for usury.

Božović was arrested in June last year on charges that he had repeatedly lent money over a three-year period. M. Ð., taking advantage of his difficult financial situation, need and dependence on loans, thereby endangering his safety, to the extent that the injured party had to leave Montenegro and go to the United States of America.