Former first lady of the Montenegrin judiciary Vesna Medenica will have to explain to the Anti-Corruption Agency how her daughter Marija and a minor granddaughter DD acquired a luxury villa in the center of Kolašin, on land allegedly donated to them by their godfather Rado Gago Arsić, now suspected of tax evasion.
This follows from the ruling of the Administrative Court following a lawsuit filed by the Network for the Affirmation of the Non-Governmental Sector (MANS), after the Agency, under the leadership of the former director Jelena Perović, ignored their initiative for verification, submitted back in May 2022.
MANS announced in April of that year that Vesna Medenica's daughter had signed a contract at the end of July 2018 confirming that she had received a gift from Tivat businessman Rade Arsić, worth 21.000 euros, on behalf of her minor daughter DD, in the form of a 586 square meter plot of land in the center of Kolašin.
The gift, MANS stated at the time, arrived just ten days after Arsić obtained a building permit to build a house on that plot, which is confirmed by official documentation from the Kolašin Secretariat for Urban Planning.
Four years later - in 2022 - there was already a building on that donated plot, and according to data from the technical documentation obtained by MANS, the work on the house, which has an area of about 340 square meters, amounted to around 125.000 euros, without interior fittings.
Arsić then said that his gesture was solely an "expression of gratitude", and that the gift had no "reciprocal character". Arsić also said that the land was donated with the aim of helping the minor DD, and that he was related to Vesna Medenica's family by godfathership...
PEROVIĆ IGNORED THE INITIATIVE
In May 2022, MANS requested from the Agency, then headed by Perović, to verify the basis for acquiring property and income of a minor DD, namely Marija Medenica, a person related to Vesna Medenica, then the former President of the Supreme Court of Montenegro.
However, the Agency's management at the time ignored this initiative, which is why MANS filed a lawsuit with the Administrative Court.
"The Agency for the Prevention of Corruption is obliged to make a decision upon the prosecutor's request of May 9, 2022, without delay, and no later than 30 days from the date of receipt of the judgment," the Administrative Court's judgment states.
The judgment also states that the Agency, in response to MANS's lawsuit, claimed that "administrative proceedings cannot be initiated against former public officials, because it is explicitly stated that administrative proceedings are initiated against public officials, and that Vesna Medenica's position ceased on December 31, 2020, so she was not a public official at the time of filing the initiative...".
The court nevertheless held that the Agency had to carry out the procedure.
"From the evidence attached to the lawsuit, it is established that the defendant body did not, within the prescribed period, decide on the plaintiff's request, which is why the conditions from Article 12, paragraph 2 of the Law on Administrative Disputes have been met for initiating an administrative dispute and issuing a decision in accordance with the provisions of Article 35, paragraph 3 of the same law, which stipulates that, when a lawsuit is filed due to the silence of the administration in accordance with the law, and the Administrative Court determines that it is well-founded, it will adopt the lawsuit by judgment and oblige the defendant public law body to resolve the administrative matter in question," is the judgment of the Administrative Court.
"The Agency for the Prevention of Corruption is obliged to make a decision without delay, and no later than 30 days from the date of receipt of the judgment, upon the request of the prosecutor of 9 May 2022," the Administrative Court's judgment states.
GODFATHERSHIP AND “CONSCIOUS”
The trial of Medenica and the Commercial Court judge is underway in the Podgorica High Court Milici Vlahović Milosavljević.
The indictment alleges that Medenica, as the President of the Supreme Court of Montenegro, abused her official position through incitement and allegedly influenced Judge Vlahović Milosavljević to make a decision in the case in favor of her godfather, Rade Arsić, to the detriment of the Moscow-based corporation "Ten".
In addition to the godfather relationship, Arsić was also linked to Medenice by a joint project to build luxury villas in the Tivat Bay with Miloš MedenicaBack in 2020, MANS filed a criminal complaint against Arsić and Medenica for illegal construction in the coastal zone.
This Tivat businessman has been known to the general public since 2007, when he, along with people close to his family, Djukanovic participated in the recapitalization of the First Bank of Montenegro...
Arsić was arrested in April this year in an operation by the Crime Prevention Sector, or rather their Department for Combating Corruption, Economic Crime and Conducting Financial Investigations, on suspicion of damaging the budget by more than 311.000 euros.
The police then announced that it is suspected that Arsić, acting on behalf of and for the account of the reported legal entity 'CCG' from Tivat, in his capacity as executive director and founder, continuously during 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 "did not report income generated on multiple bases in order to avoid tax duties."
"And that the funds were transferred from the account of the reported legal entity to the personal account of the reported RA, as well as in the way that the funds of the reported legal entity were used to repay the bank loan of the appointed executive director, without personal income tax being calculated or paid on them, whereby, based on uncalculated and unpaid tax liabilities, based on tax on income from property and property rights, as well as tax on income from capital, they obtained unlawful material gain for themselves and the reported legal entity in the total amount of 311.165,82 euros, to the direct detriment of the Budget of Montenegro," it was announced at the time.
Former Agency director Jelena Perović is also on friendly terms with Medenica.
Two years ago, "Vijesti" published part of a transcript of their conversations, according to which Perović at one time, contrary to regulations, sought and received suggestions from Medenica on how to proceed in certain cases. She consulted with him on whether to order someone to be detained or to lift the detention, apologized for not accepting her plea agreement in one case, informed him who had applied for which positions in the judiciary...
“Okay. Thanks for the information. That's what conscientious people do," Medenica answers her.
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