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Amant Josifi and the connections with Olsi Ramë/ How he escaped from the handcuffs in Albania

2023-09-14 20:31:51, Aktualitet CNA

Amant Josifi and the connections with Olsi Ramë/ How he escaped from the

Amant Josifi managed to escape the handcuffs when a special team of the Spanish police came to arrest him in Albania, but this did not prevent the Albanian police from calling his arrest in Dubai a joint success with foreign partners.

In fact, the Albanian police had a hard time approaching Josif, due to his connections with the high levels of power. At the age of 26, he was appointed to a position that offered him security, as an advisor to the then Minister of Defense, Olta Xhaçka.

Although at a young age, Amant Josifi created profitable connections with a group of young people educated in the west who managed to extort billions of euros from European citizens, through fraud with call centers. The former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Defense, Olta Xhaçka, has never explained what was the recommendation that brought the 26-year-old Amant Josifi to her office as an advisor.

In addition to Xhaçka's advisor, Amant Josifi also turned out to be a business partner with the prime minister's brother, Olsi Ramë.

It is about the company called Pegasus Communications, where Josifi was a partner with Olsi Rama, the younger brother of Prime Minister Edi Rama.

Olsi Rama owned 35% of the shares of the company Pegasus Communicatios, while 30% was owned by Amant Josifi. Not even Olsi Rama has spoken in any case about the relationship he had with Amant Josif, since he was declared wanted by the Court in Spain in November of last year for the criminal offenses "Fraud with aggravating circumstances", "Cybercrime", "Scheme pyramid" and "criminal organization".

An article by the OCCRP journalists' network revealed for the first time the "call center" fraud scheme from Georgia, Ukraine to Tirana and revealed that the point of contact in our country was Amant Josifi.

Here is what the investigative media wrote about Josif and his connections:

"31-year-old Josifi has strong connections in Albania. He has been an official adviser to the Minister of Defense since December 2017, when he was appointed by Olta Xhaçka, a member of Prime Minister Edi Rama's Socialist Party.

Josifi is also a former business partner of the prime minister's brother, Ols (Olsi) Rama, with whom he co-owned a telecommunications and telemarketing firm, Pegasus Communications Shpk, until Josifi sold his shares in December 2017.

His mother, Pranvera Strakosha, is a former judge who is now the Commissioner for Civil Service Oversight, an ombudsman charged with protecting the rights of government employees.

In response to OCCRP questions, Josifi confirmed that he had a call center in Albania and that he had attended the Milton Group (the fraud's parent company) party in January. But he denied any formal connection to the Milton Group and said his center was completely separate.

He said he was "just on vacation" in Kiev during the holiday and had met David Todua (the head of the ponzi scheme).

The European media have paid special attention to the so-called Milton group, a group of Western-educated guys who set up a call center fraud scheme and managed to extort hundreds of thousands of citizens across Europe. The heads of the group were David Todua, Rati Tchelidze, Guram Gogeshvili, Joseph Mgeladze and Michael Benimini.

Josif was an acquaintance of theirs, who ran the Albania branch and who did his part in extorting billions by organizing the scheme in our country.

The Milton group managed to trick their victims into creating fake incest schemes by convincing them they were winning on the stock market, in some cases extorting hundreds of thousands of pounds.

An investment brand of the Milton group even sponsored a top-flight Spanish football club and was advertised in major newspapers, lending credibility to potential investors.

Milton Group Brands had office space in several states. Most victims signed up after viewing an ad on social media. Within 48 hours they received a call.

On the other end of the phone was usually a call center, with the same features as a legitimate business, a modern office with a human resources department, monthly targets and bonuses, days off and contests for the best operator. Some call centers played motivational music in the background.

Victims were registered under fictitious brands created by the Milton group. They were then instructed by the broker to make predetermined trades to lose the client's money and make money for the broker.

Some were instructed to download a program on their computer that allows the fraudster to remotely control their computer and perform transactions on behalf of the customer. Customers thought they were making smart moves on real exchanges, but their money was simply stolen.

In Albania, last year 4 associates of Amant Josif were arrested, while he himself escaped from the handcuffs. Then doubts were raised about a de-conspiracy of the action, thanks to the powerful acquaintances that the young man had.

It was reported in the media that a few hours before the start of the police action to arrest him, the call center offices were urgently emptied and Josifi left in an unknown direction. His name was not even mentioned in the conference held by SPAK prosecutors.

Irisa Puca, Adrian Korriku, Bernardo Saraçaj and Erind Pysqyli are the 4 arrested in the international operation that was led by Eurojust, Europol and the Spanish Civil Guard. The investigations then extended to several European countries, including Albania, Georgia, North Macedonia, Bulgaria and Ukraine./ Lapsi.al





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