Multimillion-dollar assets of the company "Gufo", owned by Zeljko Beli Garic, is under the custody of the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SD), upon whose order the High Court in Podgorica ordered a temporary blocking measure as part of the financial investigation launched against the accused businessman. Aleksandar Ac Mijajlović.
The company registered for hospitality and hotel accommodation has attracted a lot of attention in recent years due to its investments in tourism, but also due to the pledge of valuable assets during the offering of the largest bail in the history of the Montenegrin judiciary for the freedom of an accused police operative. Petar Lazović.
The list of blocked assets of the company "Gufo", judging by the documentation that "Vijesti" has had access to, is probably one of the largest in financial investigations to date, and the investigating judge To Goran Šćepanović It took more than five pages of court documents to list everything on which the SDT temporary deed was registered.
The court decision on the confiscation of property gained through criminal activity, which relates to real estate registered as the property of the company "Gufo", was issued on September 2 at the request of the SDT as part of the financial investigation against the accused Mijajlović.
"A temporary ban in relation to the registered share in the company 'Gufo', in which Željko Garić is registered as the founder with a 100% ownership share, was registered because there is a reasonable suspicion that the property, namely the said share, was acquired through criminal activity," the court decision states.
The court's decision on the temporary measure was delivered to the Cadastre Administration, namely the regional units in Budva, Nikšić, Podgorica, Tivat, Danilovgrad and Kolašin, where Garić's company has property worth millions, in order to register a record of the prohibition on disposing of real estate.
59 flats and apartments, 55 garages, the former hotel "Lipka" blocked...
On the long list, 59 housing units, or apartments and flats, with a total area of 3.881 square meters, have been temporarily blocked.
The temporary measure has been registered on 42 apartments with a total area of 2.351 m2 in Budva, where "Gufo" has an apart hotel in the center of the tourism metropolis, in a building complex built by the company "Bemaks".
The ban was also registered on 11 duplex apartments in Podgorica, each with an area of 67, 89, 67, 68, 69, 90, 89, 178, 79, 69 and 81 square meters, with a total area of 946 m2, as well as four more apartments of almost 300 square meters at another location.
The title deed was also placed on two apartments totaling 297 m2 in Tivat.
A temporary measure has also been registered against the former hotel "Lipka" in Kolašin, which the owner of the company "Gufo" purchased in the fall of last year from the company "Silk Resort and Spa".
The hotel has a total area of 5.466 m2 and is divided into six separate parts, or floors, so the decision specifically states prohibitions on six levels.
The court ruling also included a ban on 55 garages totaling 864 m2 in Podgorica, Budva and Tivat. In Budva, the SDT key was placed on 20 garages, as well as 32 in Podgorica, two garages within apartments in Tivat, and a garage in Vrela in Danilovgrad.
In cadastral plots under numbers 90, 907 and 908 in the Vrela settlement in Danilovgrad, several plots totaling 15.458 m2 have been blocked, and the measure has been registered on plots, namely meadows and a yard in Podgorica, totaling over 4.000 square meters.
The SDT measure, approved by the High Court, was also registered on the family home of the owner of the "Gufo" company.
The connection between Garić and Mijajlović
The company “Gufo” was once called “Fendy”, and is known to the general public as the owner of the famous “Grand” cafe, which for many years was a gathering place for the political and police elite. The place was closed after an explosive device was thrown at it in September 2015.
Željko Garić is also the sole owner of the company Women's Basketball Club "Budućnost Bemaks", with which the Capital City of Podgorica entered into a contract to manage the sports and recreation center in Tološka šuma, after "Bemaks" donated 800.000 euros for its renovation.
The owner of the company "Gufo" has had multiple business and friendly ties with the owners of the construction company "Bemax" for decades, and MANS announced that Garić exchanged real estate with Petar Lazović's mother in early 2021, giving an apartment and garage in the center of Podgorica (behind the "Hilton" hotel) in exchange for a smaller apartment on Jola Piletića Boulevard.
After Garić's company offered valuable property as collateral for the defendant Lazović, the MANS Research Center called on the SDT to specifically investigate the motivation of anyone outside the family circle to offer multi-million-dollar property as collateral.
Garić's connections with the company "Bemax" and its founders are multiple, and the owner of the company "Gufo" and the Women's Basketball Club "Budućnost Bemax" is also one of the co-owners of the company "Saprom", in which the businessman also had ownership. Ranko Ubović.
The company "Gufo" was one of the investors in the construction of the building known as the "Southern Gate of the City", located on the outskirts of Podgorica, which was built by "Bemax", while the other investor in the project was the company "Master Inženjering".
As previously reported in the MANS investigation, defendant Aleksandar Mijajlović was also in Garić's company "Gufo".
The defendant Aleksandar Mijajlović was charged on suspicion of organizing a criminal group that engaged in international cigarette smuggling through the Port of Bar between 2019 and 2021...
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