For four years now, President of the Supreme Court of Montenegro Vesna Medenica has been hiding from the competent authorities information about a deal from which she earned nearly €139,000, made with a controversial businessman Zoran Bećirović from Kolašin.
Namely, on July 6, 2015, Medenica inherited nearly 28,000 square meters of forest, meadows and orchards near Kolašin from her late husband, and only ten days later, she sold the entire land to a company Lolkan Investments Montenegro, headed by Bećirović through related Cypriot offshore company, according to exclusive information of the MANS Investigative Centre.
Vesna Medenica did not report the sale of the land or the income of nearly €139,000, although the then Law on Conflict of Interest stipulated in Article 19 that, due to an increase in assets of more than €5,000, she was obliged to submit a special report.
When asked why she did not report the sale of land and income from her business with Bećirović, the President of the Supreme Court gave no comment.
In what way was Medenica paid for the land?
Medenica sold four plots she inherited from her husband, with a total area of about 28,000 m2, to an unknown company from Kolašin, Lolkan Investment Montenegro, which, according to the Central Registry of the Commercial Court, is 100% owned by the company KATUN, also from Kolašin. Furthermore, the sole founder of Katun is the offshore Caldero Trading Limited from Cyprus.
Data from the Cypriot register show that Montenegrin businessman Zoran Bećirović is the sole shareholder of Caldero Tradining Limited.
Financial statement of the Lolkan Investments Montenegro for 2015 shows that Medenica was paid with money from a short-term loan taken the same year, in the amount of €140 thousand. To date, Lolkan has not repaid a single Euro for this loan, which is still considered to be short-term. This indicates that it is unlikely that it is a loan from a commercial bank.
Another possible option is that Medenica was paid in cash, which was brought to Lolkan as a loan by some of the companies in Montenegro related to Bećirović. However, none of the companies related to him does not have this loan registered in their reports.
Zoran Bećirović did not respond to questions regarding the origin of the money his company paid to Vesna Medenica, or what he plans to do with the land in Kolašin that was purchased from her.
Financial reports analysed by MANS show that both Bećirović’s companies, Lolkan and Katun, are currently in lockdown, they have been operating at a loss for years, and have no income, even in the year when Medenica was paid close to € 139,000.
MANS Investigative Centre tried to get more information about these companies in Kolašin, however, at the addresses where they were registered there were no visible signs that they are actually located there.
Dejan Milovac
Lazar Grdinić
Severe disciplinary offense
If a judge does not provide property and income records in accordance with the regulations, this is considered a severe disciplinary offense according to Article 108 of the Law on Judicial Council and Judges. The same law defines disciplinary sanctions in the form of a fine ranging between 20 and 40% of a judge’s earnings, for a period of three to six months, as well as a ban on promotion.
If there is a reasonable suspicion that a judge has committed a disciplinary offense, a motion to determine the disciplinary responsibility of a judge may be submitted by the President of the Court, the president of the immediately higher court and the President of the Supreme Court or the Commission for Monitoring the Implementation of the Code of Ethics of Judges. The motion for establishing the disciplinary responsibility of the President of the Supreme Court may be submitted by the General Session of the Supreme Court.
Housing issue of Medenica resolved three times
The Government helped the President of the Supreme Court Vesna Medenica three times in resolving the housing issue. Namely, in December last year, Medenica received a favourable loan from the Government in the amount of €40 thousand, of which she was obliged to repay only €6,800. Medenica repaid the remaining amount at once, thus closing her loan.
On the other hand, 20 years ago, the Government gave her an apartment of 80 m2 in the luxurious Vektra building in Podgorica, which Medenica gave to her daughter a few years ago. According to available data, Medenica received additional € 20,000 in 2005 to resolve the housing issue.
Who is Zoran Bećirović?
The name of Zoran Bećirović is connected to numerous controversial privatizations, starting with the sale of Avala Hotel in Budva to London-based Beppler & Jacobson, whose majority owner, Igor Lazurenko, accused Bećirović in a court in London of acquiring his share in the company thanks to an acquaintance with Đukanović family during the sale of the hotel. Avala Hotel was sold to Beppler, although it was second-ranked in the tender, thanks to a decision by the Judicial Council headed by Ana Đukanović at the time.
Besides business with Medenica, Cypriot company Caldero Tradining Limitied has been used in Bećirović’s other businesses as well, including the resale of beautiful plots of Russian businessmen in Skočiđevojka and the lease of state land in Kolašin last year. Until his murder in 2011, Zoran’s brother Dragan Bećirović was the co-owner of this Cypriot offshore. Dragan was killed in Budva, and in court proceedings, his brother stated that a group of senior security officials, political officials and the media mafia are behind the murder.
Through the offshore companies, Bećirović brothers also did business in Budva with Miloš Marović, son of a senior DPS official Svetozar Marović, and a member of his criminal organisation.
