Tobacco.org

Djukanovic’s Montenegro a Family Business 

In December, the administration of Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic announced that Montenegro would bail out First Bank (Prva banka), one of the country’s largest financial institutions and a major investor in the Montenegrin boom. First Bank is majority owned by Djukanovic, two siblings, and a close friend.

Members of local watchdog groups, opposition parties, and journalists say this is just another example of the government’s interests aligning with the financial interests of the first family. They say their small country — fewer than 700,000 people in less space than the U.S. state of Connecticut — seems at times like the private corporation of the prime minister and his family. With Djukanovic’s political party handily winning elections at the end of March, the prime minister is expected to remain in power for another two years.

“Montenegro is a lawless country,” charges Milka Tadic, editor of the country’s influential Monitor magazine. “And if you are part of the government or close to its circles you can do whatever you want.”

Djukanovic has amassed a level of wealth that is hard to explain given his meager government salary over the years. Some believe his wealth stems from his days in the tobacco smuggling business. Italian prosecutors place the prime minister at the center of a conspiracy by Montenegrin officials and the Italian Mafia that allegedly smuggled huge quantities of cigarettes for about 10 years starting in the 1990s, although prosecutors did not specifically allege that Djukanovic profited personally from smuggling.

Allegations of corruption are attracting interest outside Montenegro . . .

“What is obvious is that Mr. Djukanovic and a number of government officials amassed enormous riches during the 1990s, and now with that money they are unabashedly buying Montenegrin companies,” said Alexander Damjonovic, a member of Parliament for the opposition Socialist People’s Party of Montenegro (SNP). “They are investing money in the capital markets. They are buying real estate.”

How the family accumulated its wealth is not clear. Critics say the Djukanovics made a series of lucrative business deals, and that the prime minister has been involved in repeated conflicts of interests.

Jump to full article »