The Europe Now Movement (PES) did not show the services of British consultants in the reports on the funds spent during the campaigns for last year's presidential and parliamentary elections, although one of them Gavejn Tauler claims that he had a consulting contract with that party, and that his team recorded videos for the needs of that party.
Also, in the statements from the PES accounts for 2023, which the party submitted to the Network for the Affirmation of the Non-Governmental Sector (MANS) under the law on free access to information, there are no data or transactions that show that Tauler or any foreigner or foreign company money paid for consulting services or video recording through regular accounts, or those opened for the presidential or parliamentary campaign, nor for the interrupted presidential campaign of the head of that party and the current prime minister Milojko Spajić.
In the author's text, published in "Vijesti" on Wednesday, Tauler said that he gave free media advice for the local elections in 2022, and that he and his team also recorded videos for Spajić's presidential campaign, with a "small contract" with PES -om.
He said that he was invited by his friend of George Cottrell stayed in Montenegro for the first time in the summer of 2020, and that in the summer of 2022 he met with Jakov Milatović i Filip Ivanovic.
Cottrell, through his lawyer, previously rejected accusations by some politicians that he personally financed Spajic's presidential campaign or that he made any political donation to PES at any time. He also told "Vijesta" through his lawyer that he did not hire Tauler and his team to shoot promotional videos for Spajić's presidential campaign.
His attorney said they were informed that, "along with several other well-established foreign media advisors and consultants," Tauler was hired by PES to "provide consulting services to them in the context of Mr. Spajić".
“Mr. "Cottrell understands that these services were fully financed and paid for by Europe now," said his lawyer.
Tauler claims that, after meeting with Milatović and Ivanović in the summer of 2022, he returned to Montenegro in the fall of that year and "observed local elections and gave free media advice", together with a friend Harry Parslow.
"It was both fun and successful, Jakov won the elections in Podgorica, and now Europe did well in Danilovgrad and other places. After that success, Parslow and I returned during Spajić's failed presidential campaign, when we got a small contract from Europe Now to provide strategic media advice for that campaign. My team of freelancers recorded a dozen video-spots, until Spajić retired, and Jakov took over that role, winning the presidential elections. We continued to provide media advice and recorded several videos for the parliamentary campaign, but it was clear that the internal Europe team no longer wanted our support," said Tauler in the author's text.
PES did not answer the questions of "Vijesta" about how much the contract with Tauler was worth, for what period it was signed, with whom the Briton signed it and when, and whether PES paid Tauler and if so - when and how.
Although he said that he had a contract with PES, Tauler did not answer those questions either. "Vijesti" asked him this week how PES paid for his and his team's services for Spajić's and the parliamentary campaign, how much and when, informing him that this was not in the statements from PES's account, nor in the reports of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (ASK). about campaign costs.
He said there might be a reason for that.
"This may be because I was contracted to provide advice in general, not so much for the presidential campaign, but also for the upcoming parliamentary elections, and not specifically," Tauler said.
To the repeated question of the value of the contract, whether it was in his name, how it was paid, to whom and when, as well as whether he himself paid "his team" who recorded and edited the video clips, Tauler said that he did not want to nothing to add.
Last year in February, Spajić ran for president of Montenegro, but the State Election Commission (SEC) disqualified him from that race because, in addition to Montenegrin, he also had Serbian citizenship. After that, Milatović, the then deputy president of PES, submitted his candidacy and won the elections. Milatović left PES at the end of February of this year because of a falling out with Spajić.
Although, as "Vijesti" announced last week, PES claims that Spajić "did not have a presidential campaign" because he was disqualified, he and the party still ran a campaign, in which marketing experts from Great Britain were also engaged. So, for example, on Spajić's account on the social network Iks, at the beginning of February last year, several promotional videos with the campaign logo - "President Spajić 2023" were published.
He confirmed to "Vijesta" that British citizens participated in the production of those videos Dominik Garner, the lawyer of the British George Cottrell, for whom the recent Minister of Justice and former high official of PES Andrej Milović, and before him some other Montenegrin politicians, claims that he financed that party and its campaigns.
Bearing in mind that PES and Spajić started their presidential campaign before the eventual confirmation of their candidacy, they were obliged to open a special giro account for the purpose of collecting funds to finance the campaign expenses, according to the law.
However, according to the data that PES submitted to MANS last year, there is no one for Spajić's campaign on the list of accounts of the party since its foundation. Consequently, there are no reports for Spajić's campaign.
PES, in the report on funds spent during the campaign for Milatović, submitted to the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (ASK), states that they hired the company "PGS Agency" from Podgorica for video production, and "Atomic doo", also from Podgorica, for filming the video spots. .
In the report on the campaign for the parliamentary elections, which were held in June last year, it is written that PES also hired the company "PGS Agency" to film the entire campaign, from May 20 to June 10 last year.
When asked by "Vijesti" whether they hired British consultants for the services they provided to PES during the campaigns for the presidential and parliamentary elections, the company from Podgorica answered in the negative.
"We have not hired any consultants. We provided strictly photo and video services, for which we were also engaged by numerous other parties,'' PGS Agency said.
PES paid 3.146 euros for the services of "PGS Agency" during the campaign for the presidential elections, and 7.260 euros for the parliamentary elections.
Even "Atomic doo", as they claim from that company, did not hire the British.
"We were hired as executive producers and for the purposes of filming we did not hire consultants from Great Britain," they told "Vijesta" from "Atomic".
PES paid them almost 37 thousand euros for the recording of video spots during the presidential campaign.
Until recently, the Minister of Justice, Milović, published ten days ago on the Iks network photos in which PES leader Spajić is allegedly with "Kotrel's team", i.e. Tauler, "Kotrel's key man for the campaigns", who "was the man in command for Brexit" (withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU).
Cottrell was one of the advisors of the former British MP and one of the loudest proponents of Great Britain's exit from the European Union (EU). Nigel Farage. He was in charge of raising money for the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), until he was arrested in the United States of America (USA) in July 2016, where he was accused of money laundering, fraud, blackmail and extortion.
In December of the same year, he reached an agreement with the prosecutor's office there, and 20 counts of the indictment were dismissed in exchange for his pleading guilty to an electronic fraud in which he explained the ways in which money can be laundered.
He spent eight months in prison.
Some Montenegrin politicians claimed last year that Cottrel is the owner of an illegal cryptocurrency trading machine in Tivat, which one of his lawyers then denied.
Tauler said in an author's text for "Vijesti" that he came to Montenegro at the invitation of Kotrel in 2020, before the elections held in August of that year, in order to, as he said, see what the political conditions are in the country.
87.861 euros were reported for Milatović's videos
During Milatović's campaign for the presidential elections, PES spent a total of 28.481 euros on advertising videos and material, while the costs for media representation, ads and publications amounted to 240.040 euros.
The recording of video spots in the report is listed in the section "other expenses of the election campaign" and they amounted to a total of 87.861 euros.
In the campaign for the parliamentary elections, the costs for the production of advertising videos and advertising material amounted to 37.321 euros, and the costs of media presentation, advertisements and publications amounted to 305.799 euros. Other costs, including the recording of the campaign, were 40.093 euros.
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