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Prosecutor's file: How Arben Ahmetaj was paid by the businessmen of the incinerators

2023-07-15 16:59:00, Aktualitet Ola Xama

Prosecutor's file: How Arben Ahmetaj was paid by the businessmen of the

Multiple loans paid by 'unidentified charities' in bank documents and old business collaborations with a construction company were used by incinerator businessmen Klodian Zoto and Mirel Mërtiri to pay bribes to former deputy prime minister Arben Ahmetaj, the documents reveal of the prosecution available from BIRN.

The documents suggest that, unlike the simple schemes allegedly used by former minister Lefter Koka to obtain bribes from Albtek Energy, ITS and the Fier incinerator company, in the case of Ahmetaj, the schemes are much more complicated, including many individuals, bank loans and suspicious payments of tens of thousands of euros to FI Bank, for which there are no records of who made them.

SPAK accuses Ahmatej of passive corruption in six cases and money laundering schemes in more than one case. On Friday, in an extraordinary session, the Parliament of Albania voted to lift his immunity, allowing the prosecution to carry out arrests and house raids, but Ahmetaj has left Albania.

He denied the allegations in a Facebook post.

"...My ex-wife (who has never worked in a state institution) has sold square meters, property declared in my wealth declaration, on the free market, as corruption???? Family property declared with verified sources, as corruption?? Investigation, to whom did he sell the property??", asked Ahmetaj, answering the accusations with the claim that he is being persecuted unfairly.

The prosecution's investigation into Ahmetaj, summarized in a 320-page report submitted to the Albanian Parliament and subsequently leaked to the media, shocked the country's political scene by exposing fragments from two decades, which suggest systemic corruption involving a high number of officials and businessmen.

According to the investigation file, Ahmetaj received at least 491 thousand euros in bribes and a villa from the incinerator businessmen and another villa from the controversial businessman Mond Bego.

One of the schemes is related to an investment that Arben Ahmetaj is believed to have made in the Sheron company, a construction company in Tirana. The owner of the company stated to the prosecutors that he really had a relationship with Ahmetaj, but in the documents it was his ex-wife.

The story begins in 2005, when according to the statement in the prosecutor's office of the owner of the company, Flamur Shena, the investor is Arben Ahmetaj.

The company received a construction permit for a building in Selitë from the Municipality of Tirana, at that time, under the direction of Edi Rama. The prosecution notes that Ahmetaj and his ex-wife seem to have lied in their annual declaration of assets, declaring as a source of investment the income from dividends and the sale of shares in the "Hermes" company.

According to the prosecution, the sale of "Hermes" provided Ahmetaj with 447 thousand euros and his ex-wife with 298 thousand euros, but this happened only in 2008, while the investment in the Shenon company dates from 2006 to 2009.

"Regarding this investment, the investigations continue to identify the legality of the source of income [considering] that from the sale of shares, the income came on 11.06.2008, while the investment started at least in 2006 ," writes the prosecution.

The building project appears to have been an investment with high profit potential, but it appears that the works did not proceed properly and the administrator stated to the prosecutors that the elevators were not installed because there were not many people and that she did not know what it was done since 2011.

Scheme of transfers

Prosecutors believe that the apartments benefited from this investment were used as a means to transfer large sums of money from the administrators of the incinerator companies to Ahmetaj.

In December 2016, a citizen named Andi Boni appears before the notary, who signs to buy two apartments with a total area of ??272 square meters for 280 thousand euros. A second contract reduces the amount to 185 thousand euros. The buyer makes two payments in cash and one by bank transfer for a total of 170 thousand euros, a part secured by a loan.

The prosecution says that the buyer does not appear to have used the purchased apartments and that his wife, when questioned separately, had never seen them. But what is revealed later is that a loan worth 132,000 euros, taken by him at NGB Bank, was first paid off by payments made by four other citizens, and finally, a year later, an amount of almost 107 thousand euros is repaid by the citizen Helidon Begaj. This same person, to repay this loan, seems to have taken another loan.

Begaj, says the prosecution, is the owner of a company named "Albano" purchased in 2020. In addition to being a businessman, it turns out that Begaj worked between 2015 and 2022 as the General Secretary of the Municipality of Rrogozhina, while he previously worked in National Agency of Natural Resources.

His company has also issued invoices worth 73 million lek [almost 700 thousand euros] to the incinerator company of Tirana, Integrated Energy BV SPV in the period March 2022-February 2023.

There is no chronological connection between the payments, because the repayment of the first buyer's loan was carried out in 2019, but the prosecution has found other previous connections. According to the Prosecutor's Office, Begaj and Zoto have been in communication since 2015 regarding a cleaning plant on the Shkumbin river, which was destroyed shortly after construction.

The prosecution notes: "The amount of 170,480 euros that citizen Andi Boni paid on 19.12.2016, 01.02.2017 and 15.02.2017 to citizens Arben and Albina (see that the payment was made to the joint account of these citizens) is a product of the criminal activity of corruption, hidden in the form of a value given for the sale of the apartment... a sale that is actually fictitious, derived from the citizen Klodian Zoto through the citizen Helidon Begaj."

The prosecution also notes that the apartments that are supposed to have been sold, in fact, continue to be registered in the name of the company.

According to the prosecution, the evidence collected creates "the reasonable suspicion, based on the evidence, that the sale is fictitious, [...] carried out with the intention of circulating and justifying sums of money that are not justified by legal income." The prosecution further adds that its suspicion is that this money was paid "in the form of a bribe, by citizens Klodian Zoto and Mirel Mërtiri."

The prosecution has discovered another scheme through a loan given by Klodian Zoto to the citizen Besmir Prifti, who was the administrator of the Water Company in Elbasan.

Almost five months after the sale of apartments in the first scheme, the same apartment appears to be on sale for a second time. This time, the Priest uses the loan received from Zoto to transfer 150 thousand euros to Ahmetaj. The sales contract was canceled by the will of the parties and the amount of money was returned to the buyer. But the prosecution points to the fact that Zoto has extended the term of repayment of the loan from the Priest to 25 years, to note the unusual nature of the transaction.

Three months later, another businessman gives a loan to a citizen worth 140,000 euros. An employee of the Frigo Food company uses the loan to buy an apartment. The prosecution is not convinced that the buyer really owns the purchased apartment, despite having made the payment, while until 2023, the loan taken from her has not been repaid.

The prosecution believes that the transaction is fake, based on the fact that the buyer did not use the purchased property.

For the three apartments, the prosecution says it has reason to suspect that they continue to be under the ownership of Arben Ahmetaj, despite the various transactions that brought him significant income.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Arben Ahmetaj rejected the prosecution's claims in a post on Facebook, where, among other things, he declares that "Klodian Zoto, who has never been my friend"./ Reporter.al





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