Blazo Djukanovic, without Milo Đukanović former Prime Minister and President of Montenegro, Marko Gvozdenović, the son of a long-time minister Branimir Gvozdenović, Luka Bećirović, the son of a businessman Zoran Ćoć Bećirović, founded the company "Kolašin Valleys", which sells apartments, apartments and villas in a luxury tourist resort on the Kolašin ski resorts.
According to data from the Central Register of Business Entities, this company was registered on December 25 last year, with a capital of one euro, and at that time the founders were Marko Gvozdenović and Luka Bećirović. Blažo Đukanović joined them with the amendment of the founding act of February 6 this year, so that they now own a third of the founding capital. Gvozdenović is also the executive director, and Đukanović and Bećirović are authorized representatives.
Over a thousand luxury apartments and villas in the brochures
The company has its website kolasinvalleys.com, as well as pages on social networks where it advertises the sale of apartments and villas, as well as apartments in so-called condo hotels, which are being built or will be built in the wider area of the ski resort, in two, as stated, ski- villages "1450 Nest" and "K16 Peak". Construction of four hotels with 317 residential units is underway on this area, and the construction of another six new buildings with 700 residential units is planned, as well as two mountain villas. Although the company was officially founded in December, on social networks, where the name "Kolašin Valleys" is used, since July last year there have been announcements about the presentations and sales of this property in the states of the region.
All this is being built on the land of the former Jezerine state ski center, which was bought by the elder Bećirović, as well as on an additional 30.000 square meters of state land that the Government leased to his consortium in 2019. In these locations, there are also three projects that entered the economic citizenship program from 2019, so that a foreigner who buys real estate in the amount of more than 250 thousand euros can get Montenegrin citizenship.
For the beginning of the project, the decisive influence of fathers
The company "Kolašin Valleys" was established in accordance with the law and has a legally regulated activity of "consulting activities related to business and other management". According to data from the cadastre, he has no property, although it could not be registered either because it is still in official custody, but he appears here as an intermediary.
What is interesting in the media and what is a possible public influence is that the elder Đukanović and Gvozdenović had significant roles in the privatization of the former state ski resort, the adoption of spatial plans, the granting of various consents and state aid, the construction of infrastructure with state money, and the final program of economic citizenship . All this had the effect that the elder Bećirović got valuable property cheaply and later received numerous benefits from the state. This increased the exclusivity of this location, and the price of its real estate.
Zoran Bećirović's offshore company "Bepler Džekobson" bought the property of the former ski center Bjelasica twice in 2003 and 2007 for a total of 2,1 million euros. For that price, they got the hotel "Bjelasica" in the center of Kolašin, two motels, two restaurants, all the infrastructure of the ski resort, as well as 149 thousand square meters of surrounding land.
Ski resort and 149 thousand square meters for €550.000
The property of the ski resort itself and the surrounding land was sold for 550 thousand euros, after several unsuccessful tenders in which "Bepler" was the only bidder. After the Commercial Court annulled the fifth tender dissatisfied with the offer of 550 thousand euros, Milo Đukanović then harshly criticized the "authorities" for delaying the sale. Immediately after that, the bankruptcy administrator announced a new, sixth tender, with a three times lower initial price, which is identical to the price (550.000) that "Bepler" was willing to pay earlier. Obligations to invest in the ski resort amounted to 3,5 million euros.
The sale of the property of the former ski center "Bjelasica" was marked by several scandals and legally contested procedures, as well as the disappearance of important documentation about this procedure. Bankruptcy was introduced for the first time in 1998, contrary to the opinion of a court expert, due to a disputed debt of 100 thousand marks, even though the property had a multiple higher value. That bankruptcy was later annulled by the court, but a new one was introduced the following year.
Judge Bošković warns of illegality
In January 2007, a judge of the Commercial Court Nataša Bosković told "Vijesta" that based on the documentation provided to her by an employee of the Bjelasica Ski Center Ratko Cogurić, has a well-founded suspicion that by order of one or more powerful individuals, bankruptcy was illegally introduced in that company in 1999 as well. She then said that the case number under which the bankruptcy was first opened is persistently used in the bankruptcy proceedings, although the case was given a new number after the Supreme Court canceled the proceedings. At the time, she also said that the sale of the property of the Ski Center "Bjelasica" was not advertised either on the notice board of the Commercial Court or in the Official Gazette, and that this in itself is a violation of the legal procedure and is enough to stop the entire process.
However, that did not happen, and in the same year, representatives of the bankruptcy administration and the Government signed a contract on the sale of the ski resort and the surrounding land to Bećirović's company.
In the following years, Bećirović had "problems" with the former workers of the state ski resort who had 20 percent ownership in it, due to the fact that, although the new ski resort is legally inherited from the previous one, he did not pay them debts for wages and contributions.
The state provided "both fist and cap" for private business
Thus, in October 2013, the then Minister of Sustainable Development and Tourism and Prime Minister for Economic Policy Branimir Gvozdenović approved state aid to Bećirović's company "Ski resort - Kolašin 1450" in the amount of 351 thousand euros because it "is the carrier of the tourism offer of the Bjelasica region ". This allowed this company to settle the due debts for taxes and contributions on the wages of workers in the following seven years.
He was the Minister of Sustainable Development and Tourism from December 2012 to November 2016. In that period, plans were launched for the development of the ski resort, the construction of the state ski resort in Kolašin 1600, around which the land was later leased to Bećirović's company, as well as the reconstruction of the road from Kolašin to the Jezerine ski resort, and the road and tunnel from Jezerin to Lubnica in the municipality of Beran, whose is expected to open soon. So far, the state has invested about one hundred million euros in all of this.
Real estate became part of the citizenship program
Đukanović was "first a man of the state" in the entire period from the beginning of the privatization of the former state ski resort to the approval of the economic citizenship program. Even though he was the president of the country at the time, he actively worked on its promotion even before the official start of the economic citizenship program.
Thus, in November 2018, he spoke at the Global Conference on Residency and Citizenship in Dubai, organized by the company "Henley & Partners", the Government's partner in this program.
"It is in the interest of the state to further accelerate development through the application of the Individual Investment Program, create new jobs, reduce the foreign trade deficit and carry out the transfer of knowledge and new technologies", announced Đukanović at the time, as announced by his cabinet, and said that the applicants would to benefit from a favorable tax system, visa-free regime for countries in the Schengen zone and integration into the economic and political system of the country.
Three projects of Bećirović Sr. at this location, the so-called condo hotels, were accepted into the economic citizenship program. It is a type of hotel that is made up of individual residential units sold to individuals and investors for personal use or as a rental property. In the northern region, citizenship can be obtained by anyone who buys real estate from these projects for more than 250 euros.
At the beginning of last year, the government suspended further acceptance of new projects on the basis of which economic citizenship would be obtained, due to the requirements of the European Union due to the risk of suspicious persons obtaining the citizenship of a candidate country for EU membership, as well as due to risks such as money laundering, terrorist financing and organized crime. . However, projects that were started earlier continue to be implemented, with increased state supervision.
Bonus video:
