The commercial court annulled its earlier decision by which it accepted the request of the bankruptcy trustee "Vektra Jakić" to pay him 30.000 euros from the court's deposit for temporary compensation for the costs of the bankruptcy proceedings, as well as to engage the owner of the company, Dragan Brković, to pay 1.000 euros net per month. manages the administrative part of the bankruptcy proceedings.
Previously, on March 20 of this year, the Commercial Court adopted such a request from the bankruptcy trustee Dragan Popović, who asked for this money in order to engage the security of the assets of "Vektra Jakić in bankruptcy", the employment during the bankruptcy of 17 former managers and employees of the company, including Brković, as and hiring four lawyers. Before the introduction of bankruptcy, Brković was the director of the company owned by his company "Vektra Montenegro".
The bankruptcy administrator of this company from Pljevlja stated in the explanation of the request "that it is a very complex bankruptcy procedure with huge assets, which according to the book value is worth tens of millions of euros", as well as that he needs the money to pay bills for electricity, water, internet ... the hiring of security guards, staff and other expenses, and to return the money to the court deposit from the first sale of property from the bankruptcy estate.
Brković proposed after the indictment
In January of this year, the Special State Prosecutor's Office filed an indictment against Brković, his sons Boris and Bojan Brković, as well as Milić Popović, charging them with extended criminal offenses of abuse of authority in the economy and abuse of authority in the economy through assistance and criminal offenses of money laundering and money laundering. money by helping in the case of the company "Vektra Boka". The bankruptcy administrator submitted the request to hire Brković to the commercial court on February 27, that is, about a month and a half after the indictment was filed.
"Vektra Jakić", "Vektra Boka", "Vektra Montenegro" are part of the bankrupt empire of Dragan Brković, who is in godfather and friendly relations with former president Milo Đukanović.
Against the decision of the Commercial Court to accept the bankruptcy trustee's request, the Office of the Protector of Property Legal Interests of Montenegro sent an appeal to the Commercial Court for the Court of Appeal, after which the previous decision was annulled.
To the questions of "Vijesti" about the earlier disputed decision, the Commercial Court answered that it was annulled on April 5, which is why they did not explain it in detail.
"Regarding the requested information regarding the decision of the Commercial Court of Montenegro No. 437/21 dated 20.03.2024. year, by which the bankruptcy administrator's request for the provision of the necessary funds for the implementation of the bankruptcy procedure, in the amount of 30.000 euros, was adopted, I inform you that Montenegro, through its legal representative, the Protector of Property and Legal Interests of Montenegro, filed an appeal against the said decision on April 2.04.2024, 437. . years. Acting on the reported appeal, the Commercial Court of Montenegro issued decision No. 21/05.04.2024 dated 437/21/20.03.2024. in which he accepted the appeal and annulled the decision St. no. 19/6 of XNUMX. years. Therefore, by the decision of this court in which you requested information, it was invalidated, based on Article XNUMX paragraph XNUMX of the Law on Bankruptcy", it was stated in the answers.
The judge reversed his decision
According to this article and paragraph of the Law, "the bankruptcy judge can, if he finds that the appeal is well-founded, himself make a decision on the adoption of the appeal", that is, the appeal did not even reach the Appellate Court, but the Commercial Court itself annulled its decision.
"Vijesti" sent the questions before the annulment decision was announced, and they asked whether the judge had the right to approve the payment of 30.000 euros from the deposit of the Commercial Court without the consent of the Government, as well as on what basis the Court accepted the truth claim in its decision the allegation of the bankruptcy trustee that the assets of the bankruptcy debtor are worth several million euros, when no list of the assets and their valuation has been provided. The commercial court was also asked whether an assessment of the property of "Vektra Jakić in bankruptcy" was made and if so, how much it amounted to, as well as on what basis the request of the bankruptcy trustee to hire more former managers and employees of "Vektra Jakić" for the implementation of the bankruptcy proceedings was accepted. , including Brković, as well as four lawyers.
The Office of the Protector of Property and Legal Interests of the State stated in the appeal that according to the Law on State Aid, the approval of the Government is required for any disposition of state property worth more than 3.000 euros.
Protector: Brković's proposal set a precedent
The Protector also states that the judge of the Commercial Court is not authorized to dispose of the funds of the budget unit of that court, that he thus exceeded his powers because the money "in the account of the budget unit is available only to the elder, which the acting bankruptcy judge is not."
"The court agrees with the statements of the bankruptcy administrator from the request, without first checking them. Namely, the bankruptcy administrator hires a group of people in different jobs, i.e. various professions, without explaining what activity the bankrupt debtor performs, and what are the ongoing jobs, nor how he finds that the nature of the engagement is until the end of the bankruptcy proceedings, while citing Dragan Brković, as a person who will be engaged, is a precedent , with a pre-determined monthly appanage to the same", it was stated in the complaint.
The factory no longer has assets because it was taken by OTP bank, the creditors are demanding another 150 million euros
The Office of the Protector of Property Legal Interests of Montenegro, according to the new ones from the appeal, is not even clear how the Court accepted the bankruptcy administrator's explanation that "Vektra Jakić in bankruptcy" has assets worth tens of millions of euros.
"By inspecting the electronic records of the cadastral operator, it is established that the company in bankruptcy currently has an area of 40 square meters in Pljevlje, while the court finds that it is a multimillion-dollar property, but does not state from what it concludes the same, so the court was obliged to each examine the balance sheet in detail", the complaint stated.
According to data from the cadastre, the entire complex, which consists of about 150 thousand square meters of land and several buildings of the former Pljeval wood processing factory, is now registered with "OTP Bank NYRT" as the sole owner. The reason for the registration is the activation of a mortgage on an unpaid loan of 53 million euros, as well as the fiduciary right of transfer of property from "Vektra Montenegro" to "Vektra Jakić" due to a debt based on a loan of 73 million euros. This means that "Vektra Jakić" received a loan of 53 million, and "Vektra Montenegro" received 73 million, but in some way the company from Pljeval was a guarantor.
In the current part of the bankruptcy proceedings, which began in January, bankruptcy creditors have reported claims of over 150 million euros. There are almost three hundred bankruptcy creditors, of which there are about fifty workers who claim a total of over 300 euros.
The procedure for confirming the reported claims has not yet been completed, so it is questionable whether and how many creditors can be collected from the bankruptcy estate.
The protector stated in the appeal that the entire cost of the bankruptcy proceedings (the work costs of the bankruptcy administrator, the persons he hired and other things he requested) could fall on the state, that is, the deposits of the Commercial Court if they were approved.
At the time of the introduction of bankruptcy in January of this year, "Vektra Jakić" had a blocked account for the amount of debt of 22 million euros. The account of this company has been continuously blocked since November 2016.
He pledged property purchased from the state for 1,6 million for loans of over 50 million
In the former corporation ŠIK "Velimir Jakić", the first bankruptcy was introduced in May 2004. In July 2006, Brković's "Vektra" bought the factory's property for 1,6 million euros. At that time, investments of at least six million and the employment of 320 workers were promised.
With these assets, Brković forms a new company, "Vektra Jakić". The state grants it concessions over the Pljeval forests for 30 years.
In the following period, the company "Vektra Jakić" as well as others from Brković's group took more loans, pledging the property they received from the state for 1,6 million. Brković boasted that he had invested 55 million euros in "Vektra Jakić".
Instead of the planned annual cutting of 140 thousand cubic meters of wood, the company officially cut down about half of that amount in the following years. Already in 2009, delays in salary payments began, as well as disputes with the Forestry Administration regarding concessions.
In 2012, the company entered bankruptcy through reorganization. In June 2014, the state audit institution established in the audit report that the Government had given its consent to grant a concession for the use of forests before the official establishment and registration of "Vektra Jakić".
In the last ten years, there have been several court proceedings with creditors, the introduction and termination of bankruptcy and reorganization proceedings, several confiscations of movable and immovable property and labor protests, until the final introduction of a strike in January of this year.
Then Brankica Musurović was appointed as bankruptcy administrator, but she gave up, so Popović was subsequently appointed.
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