At the height of the tourist season, while the summer bazaar is taking place at the Budva Adriatic Fair, the Administration of Local Public Revenues of the Municipality of Budva blocked the fair complex due to a tax debt of almost 100 thousand euros in the name of real estate taxes for two companies controlled by the now detained businessman Dusko Knezevic.
The mortgage of the Administration of Local Public Revenues in the total amount of 46.897 euros in the name of real estate tax, as stated in the list of immovable properties that "Vijesti" had access to, was registered on July 9 on the property of the company "Expo invest" and "Jadranski sajam", which are connected with Knežević.
"Mortgage - tax claim in the amount of EUR 48.897,57 in favor of the Municipality of Budva, property 'Expo invest'", it says in the list of real estate on the plots where the halls of the Adriatic fair are located.
Previously, in February of this year, the Administration of Local Public Revenue also registered a mortgage in the amount of 53.089 euros.
On the same day, i.e. on July 9, a mortgage arose on the property of the company "Expo Budva", a joint company of the Adriatic Fair and the Municipality.
"Mortgage - a decision on securing a tax claim - of the Local Public Revenue Administration in the total amount of 65.391 euros in favor of the Municipality of Budva", is written as an encumbrance in the list of immovable properties that "Vijesti" had access to.
Also, in February, the Administration of Local Public Revenue registered a mortgage on these plots for the amount of tax debt of 50.320 euros.
We are talking about companies that are tax debtors and on whose property the local government has previously registered mortgages as a guarantee. These are plots of land on which fair halls and other facilities are located.
The municipality and "Jadranski sajam", a company majority-owned by Atlas Group, whose founder is Duško Knežević, founded the joint company "Expo Budva", with the aim of building a modern fair and congress center on the combined plots owned by both. However, that idea did not come to fruition, and the Municipality has had its own representatives in the management structure for years. The disagreement occurred four years ago, after, despite the approval of the Municipality, "Expo Budva" gave consent to the Turkish company "Mia investments" to build a luxury hotel "Mia Budva" with two towers of 15 and 16 floors, on a plot of 8.500 square meters in front of fair halls, which is owned by the company "Safiro beach", and behind which, according to Knežević, the president of Montenegro stands Milo Djukanovic and former Minister of Sustainable Development Branimir Gvozdenović. They rejected such claims.
At the beginning of June, the Turks again received approval from the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property for their project, but the Municipality contested this decision again before the Administrative Court.
The Special State Prosecutor's Office was involved in the whole case, which acted on the basis of the former mayor's criminal charges Dragan Krapović, the current Minister of Defense, but also according to the application of the former assistant secretary for property protection of the Municipality of Budva Đorđe Zenović.
Last week, the Higher Court in Podgorica dismissed the indictment against the owner of the Atlas Group, the defendant Duško Knežević, accusing him of organizing a criminal organization through whose members he laundered and embezzled several tens of thousands of euros.
However, the defendant Duško Knežević and his legal team have a lot of work to do, because many court cases are pending in the High Court in Podgorica, so they need to prepare a defense against several indictments brought by the Special State Prosecutor's Office.
In several processes, the prosecutor's office labeled him as the organizer of a criminal group, which damaged the budget by hundreds of millions of euros through embezzlement.
At the beginning of July 2021, the Podgorica High Court announced that seven indictments had been submitted against the defendant Knežević in order to check their justification and legality.
Six were confirmed, while one was sent back to supplement the investigation.
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