President of the Atlas Group, Duško Knežević, hands Slavoljub Stijepović an envelope which allegedly contains around 100.000 euros intended for financing the Democratic Party of Socialists. Everything is happening in Knežević's house, where the recording submitted to "Vijesti" was created.
"I can only confirm that the video you are talking about is me and that it is about my house. The money I handed over to Mr. Stijepović is for DPS, which I previously agreed with Mr. Milo Đukanović," Knežević told "Vijesta".
The former mayor of Podgorica, Slavoljub Stijepović, did not answer the calls of "Vijesti".
He announced himself last night and said that he was "unpleasantly surprised that Duško Knežević was filming him".
"Due to the premeditated hoax placed through a portal, I want to inform the public that it is true that I was at Duško Knežević's house at his invitation, which was nothing unusual. I was unpleasantly surprised when I saw that a school friend was secretly filming me, which, I believe, be an integral part of the proceedings that the Prosecution is conducting against him. It is clear from the content of the conversation that it is about the conversion of money that the public was previously aware of, and that Knežević duly took his commission. The alleged transcript was of course written in accordance with the situation in which he found himself brought," said Stijepović.
The video shows Stijepović telling Knežević to go see Zeta, and the latter telling him to wait and sit down.
The businessman then tells the politician that someone "changed" the money and that they took "only 2,5 percent for change".
Stijepović answers: Let them be.
- 47.500 is here. Here is 50. That's 97.500 for you, says Knežević on the recording. Then he hands the envelope to Stijepović, who kisses him, takes the envelope and tries to put it in the inside pocket of his jacket.
At parting, Knežević asks - Does Milo speak at Zeta, and Stijepović answers in the affirmative and says: I always feel nervous when I speak in front of him.
The special state prosecution charges Knežević with embezzlement of 1,9 million euros, and unofficially - they label him the head of a criminal group that allegedly laundered over half a billion euros.
A warrant was issued for his arrest, and the SDT requested that a warrant be issued for Knežević.
He first denied that he was working illegally, said that he did not want to be involved in politics, but that the chief special prosecutor had threatened him and was trying to forcibly connect him to the Democratic Front and the "coup d'état" case.
Two days ago, he said that he had information that the hunt for him is being led by the president of the state and DPS, Milo Đukanović, together with criminal clans close to him, because they want to steal his valuable property and lucrative jobs and that they are behind the arrest warrant.
In recent days, Knežević has repeatedly repeated that he donated money for the DPS election campaign and that he did so in agreement with Đukanović.
He said that former mayor Slavoljub Stijepović is also familiar with it.
"They know very well what amounts are involved. Đukanović knows best whether they presented those donations or not," said Knežević.
The Democratic Party of Socialists did not advertise.
Then he explained that he helped the DPS, believing that their job was to "clean up those who want Montenegro as a bandit state".
Not even the Special State Prosecutor's Office announced anything about Knežević's allegations.
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At the beginning of October 2017, Knežević's driver Vlatko Baja Rašović told the police that close to 100.000 dollars, which he and five other employees of Atlas Group had converted into euros last October, belonged to Stijepović.
He told this to the inspectors of the Special Police Department, who interrogated him as a citizen.
The Special State Prosecutor's Office previously denied that any of the suspects had mentioned Stijepović to them during the interrogation, and Knežević then said that the money was his and that he had evidence of its origin.
However, "Vijesti" sources claim that Rašović told the inspectors that on October 12, 2016, at the behest of Knežević and another person from Atlas Bank, he went to Stijepović in the Capital City building to get money.
According to the law, his statement to the police cannot be used as evidence in the money laundering proceedings initiated by the Special State Prosecutor's Office against Rašović and his colleagues.
"Vijesti" sources claim that he did not repeat everything he said to the police in front of special prosecutor Lidija Vukčević.
He allegedly did not mention Stijepović during the hearing before the investigating judge of the Podgorica High Court.
Leaders of the Democratic Front, Milan Knežević and Andrija Mandić, later announced that Stijepović exchanged $2016 in Atlas Bank, which was later used for the DPS campaign, on the eve of the parliamentary elections in 100.000.
At the time, they also announced that Katnić deliberately kept this information silent. The SDT denied them the same day, and Stijepović then announced that it was an "obvious lie".
Knežević then said that he hoped that it was not a political game or a showdown between interest groups, behind his back.
With all the forces to overturn the text about Đukanović and Knežević
Intense cyber attacks on the Vijesti portal have been going on since Thursday.
The first attack that took place on Thursday targeted the entire website, while the attack that began on Friday afternoon and lasted until the end of this issue targeted only one article, exclusive information from "Vijesti" in which Atlas Group president Duško Knežević accuses the president of Montenegro, Milo Đukanović, that he was behind the warrant for his arrest and that he and his clans were trying to steal his property and business.
This is shown by the reports of the development team from the Czech company Source Fabric, which takes care of the Vijesti portal.
These are DDoS attacks, and the countries from which the attacks have been identified are China, India, Thailand, Russia...
Due to the scale of the attack, the site and the application function with serious difficulties, but the Vijesti team tries to keep the public up-to-date on everything that is of public interest.
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