The Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT) has made a correct and lawful decision with sufficiently clear reasons for dismissing the criminal complaint filed by the Network for the Affirmation of the Non-Governmental Sector against the former head of state. Milo Đukanović, his sisters Ana Đukanović and others for abuse of official position, accepting bribes and creating a criminal organization during the sale of the former state-owned company "Telekom".
This was determined by the state prosecutor at the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office, Veljko Rutović, acting on MANS's complaint about the SDT's actions. According to "Vijesti", he also sent a similar response to the Office of the Protector of Property and Legal Interests, headed by Bojana Ćirović.
MANS announced that it would submit an initiative to the Prosecutorial Council to review the actions of prosecutors in this case.
"Cases like this show the extent to which vetting in the judiciary has no alternative," MANS said.
Special prosecutor Ana Perović-Vojinović At the end of July, it dismissed MANS's criminal complaint from March 2019 against the two Đukanovićs, as well as a former representative of Telekom Oleg Obradović, “Eurofonda” Veselin Barović, the company “Monte Adria” Damjan Hosta and "Hungarian Telecom" Tomas Morvai, stating that the statute of limitations for some of the crimes began 15 years ago, while some expired just over four years ago.
The former president subsequently told "Pobjeda" that he did not believe that the statute of limitations was the reason for dismissing the report, but rather that it was the lack of a criminal offense.
Speaking about the prosecutor's decision, Đukanović said that the reason why a number of state functionaries are not making "decisions based on the Constitution and laws" is the fear of unfulfilled expectations of a part of the public, of resisting "the shameless pressure of Greater Serbian nationalism and its church, political and media servants in our country", and of "mentors of democracy" in the region, calling the "Telekom", "Prvi milion" and "Pandora papers" scandals - "pamphlets" and "nonsense"...
Prosecutorial Council to deal with special prosecutors
MANS, in a complaint to the institution it manages, Milorad Marković, emphasized that the NGO was not served with the SDT's decision of July 8, but rather with the act of July 28, "which is illegal and incomprehensible, without any explanation or indication of what relevant procedural actions were taken to prevent the statute of limitations from occurring."
"...Given that the report was filed back in March 2019, and that in the meantime the Special State Prosecutor's Office has certainly conducted proceedings against one of the persons covered by this report (Oleg Obradović). In addition, for one of the acts, it is stated that the statute of limitations began on May 15, 2021, which makes the passage of time longer than two years after the report was filed and raises the question of what actions were taken during that time, or how the acting prosecutor then allowed the statute of limitations to occur," the MANS complaint states.
Rutović, however, believes that the allegations in the complaint that the Special State Prosecutor's Office was obliged to deliver a decision on dismissal to MANS, as the filer of the criminal report, are unfounded.
"Further allegations from the complaint, which point to the untimely taking of actions by the acting prosecutors, cannot be the subject of analysis by this prosecutor's office, but rather proceedings in this direction can be initiated before the Prosecutorial Council," Rutović assessed.
Admitted and paid, but in the USA
The state-owned company "Crnogorski Telekom" was sold to "Mađar Telekom" in 2005 for 114 million, of which three million were allocated for a subsidy for the purchase of shares of minority shareholders.
The government of then Prime Minister Đukanović decided to pay each minority shareholder of Telekom 30 cents from the budget for each share they offered to “Mađar Telekom”. Thus, the Hungarians bought minority shares at a price of 2,2 euros, as they had proposed, but the shareholders, thanks to the government’s contribution, received 2,5 euros for each share sold. The minority shareholders, however, were left short, because even the “subsidized” price was significantly lower than the price that “Mađar Telekom” paid for the state-owned package of shares, i.e. 4,7 euros per share.
In December 2011, Magyar Telekom paid a $95 million fine to settle civil and criminal charges with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that the company bribed officials in North Macedonia and Montenegro to win business and eliminate competition in the telecommunications sector. The SEC charges allege that Deutsche Telekom, through its subsidiary, paid multimillion-dollar bribes to Montenegrin officials.
Former CEO of “Magyar Telekom” Elek Straub he agreed to pay $250.000, and Andras Balog, former chief strategy officer, $150.000, and both agreed to refrain from serving as officers or directors of any publicly traded company under the jurisdiction of the SEC for five years.
A New York court sentenced the third Magyar Telekom official indicted in this case, Tamás Marvai (former director of acquisitions and business development), in February, based on an agreement with the SEC, to pay a fine of $60.000 for falsifying company books and files in connection with a corruption scheme.
In April 2015, the Montenegrin prosecutor's office received documentation on the "Telekom" affair from the US. From that year until early 2019, special prosecutors explained that they were waiting for the translation of the documentation... Former Chief Special Prosecutor Milivoje Katnic, now charged with the crimes of creating a criminal organization and abuse of official position, claimed in early 2019 that Milo and Ana Đukanović were not involved in the fraud surrounding the sale of "Telekom".
After that, in March 2019, MANS filed a complaint against Đukanović, his sister and several individuals on suspicion of abuse of official position and accepting bribes.
Bonus video:
