Djukanovic’s Montenegro a family business
Montenegrins may have been surprised late last year to learn that the global financial crisis had arrived in their tiny Balkan country. Newspapers, the Internet, and even a James Bond film painted Montenegro as the Monte Carlo of Eastern Europe. The nation’s mountainous, tree-lined coast, medieval walled cities, and stone ruins set the scene for … Continued
Montenegrins may have been surprised late last year to learn that the global financial crisis had arrived in their tiny Balkan country. Newspapers, the Internet, and even a James Bond film painted Montenegro as the Monte Carlo of Eastern Europe. The nation’s mountainous, tree-lined coast, medieval walled cities, and stone ruins set the scene for a boom in luxury hotels and private villas.
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 these days, as the country is making a bid to join the European Union. Although the EU is satisfied Montenegro is making progress, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told a Montenegrin television station in December that corruption and organized crime are the primary obstacles to the country joining the EU.
Djukanovic declined to comment for this story, and has said little beyond cursory denials when various allegations of wrongdoing have surfaced over the years. Instead he has vigorously confronted his accusers in court, filing and winning defamation lawsuits against media in his homeland, Serbia, and Croatia. Last year he won a €20,000 judgment against Vijesti, the country’s largest independent newspaper, and its publisher Zeljko Ivanovic, who was badly beaten and had suggested that Djukanovic and his family were behind the attack. When the Croatian weekly Nacionalpublished an unflattering article in 2001, Djukanovic countered by suing not only that publication, but also media outlets that reprinted the story, according to Reporters Without Borders.
Family of millionaires
Djukanovic dominated political life in Montenegro. Except for 16 months he spent in Parliament, he has served continuously since 1991 as prime minister or president. As president, he became the darling of the West when he turned his back on Milosevic. After Milosevic’s 2000 defeat in Serbia, Djukanovic began a national push for independence from Serbia. His efforts succeeded in 2006.
During the war years, Montenegro relied on cigarette smuggling revenue to keep the country afloat. Bulatović and Djukanovic have admitted that smuggling helped fill government coffers, but maintain that they never personally benefited from the trade, which they say complied with Montenegrin laws.
Whatever the source of his wealth, Milo Djukanovic today is a rich man. Reporters for the International Consortium of Investigative Reporters (ICIJ) found that he owns or controls properties and company shares worth at least US$14.7 million. That stands in contrast to Djukanovic’s government salary, which has never topped $1,700 per month. Djukanovic’s income declaration forms, dating back to 2005, do not list earnings from other sources. His wife Lidija earns a salary slightly higher than his, according to the most recent filing.
“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. The privatization of a bank in his hometown of Niksic is the prime example, they say, of how Djukanovic’s family makes these business deals bear fruit.
The Niksic Bank goes private
In 2006, the Niksic Bank was slated for privatization, and Djukanovic was deeply involved. As prime minister he established a council to oversee the transfer of public companies into private hands, and he appointed himself president of that council. The council set up odd rules for the bank privatization by which a 30 percent stake in the bank would be sold on the Montenegrin stock exchange. The shares, held by the Republic of Montenegro and two government agencies, had to be sold to one bidder, the rules stated, and they set a minimum acceptable price, about $3 million, for the package. Only one bid came in. It was from Monte Nova, a company owned by Djukanovic’s brother Aco.
Monte Nova, which already owned 12 percent of the bank, didn’t actually pay even the minimum asking price. It covered about half of its bid in cash and the rest in bonds of old foreign exchange funds, a form of payment that the council’s unusual rules for the bank deal allowed. The bonds could be bought at the time for a fraction of their face value.
After the purchase, the name was changed to First Bank and its headquarters were moved to the capital, Podgorica. Monte Nova appointed four of the seven members of the board, effectively taking control of the bank. A corporate disclosure filed with the stock exchange showed that over the next two years, the board approved a series of recapitalizations, issuing additional stock that was sold again at a minimal price of $187 per share (the market price ranged between $250 and $1500). Djukanovic, through his company Capital Invest, bought nearly seven percent of the low-priced shares with a $2 million loan from the London office of Piraeus Bank of Greece. Djukanovic used the stock that he was buying as collateral. Ana Kolarevic, Djukanovic’s sister, bought what is now a 0.5 percent share of the bank.
Within one year of the purchase of his first shares, Djukanovic repaid the loan with stock that was worth four times what he paid for it.
Immediately after the Djukanovic family invested in the bank, the amount of assets deposited there by governmental bodies skyrocketed. At the end of 2006, about the time Monte Nova took over the board, the Montenegrin government and agencies, various municipalities, and state companies had $23 million in the bank, according to bank audits. By the end of 2007, government deposits totaled $127 million. Overall deposits soared from more than $104 million in 2006 to more than $579 million in 2007, making it one of Montenegro’s most important banks overnight.
Djukanovic’s government announced in December that due to the international financial crisis, the government would bail out the family’s bank. First Bank showed a profit of $5.8 million for the nine months ending September 2008, but end of the year figures just three months later revealed a loss of $35 million. Djukanovic’s government helped with a loan of $64.7 million and by paying off some $19 million in loans the bank had given to state companies or companies working on state projects. By March, the bank had paid back $14.5 million of the loan.
Auditors found that while under the family’s control, the bank regularly loaned to insiders and connected parties. For example, in 2007, Aco Djukanovic borrowed more than $2 million and Milo Djukanovic’s business partner, Vuk Rajković, borrowed $856,500. Stanko Subotic, a friend of Djukanovic who is under indictment in Serbia on charges of tobacco smuggling, took out a loan from the bank to buy nearly $33 million of land on exclusive St. Nikola Island, a resort property so stunning it is known as “Hawaii.” He never repaid the loans and the bank is liquidating his properties.
Aco Djukanovic and his sister Ana Kolarevic declined to comment. “I would gladly talk about everything else, but not about First Bank,” said Kolarevic. “I’m a small stakeholder, with a very, very small percentage. … I’m not authorized to talk about it.”
The Network for Affirmation of the NGO Sector (MANS), a Montenegrin nonprofit watchdog group, complained to the state Commission for Determining Conflict of Interest in 2006, asking it to suspend Djukanovic and several other ministers from membership in the privatization council. MANS argued that the Montenegrin Constitution prohibits government officials from performing other duties. The commission, appointed by the assembly controlled by Djukanovic’s party, disagreed, finding that the board was a government body and Djukanovic could serve in any governmental function he wanted.
Conflicts of interest?
In the fall of 2006 Djukanovic withdrew from the top level of government in favor of serving as a member of Parliament. Montenegro’s independence, he said, represented the achievement of his major political goal and it was time to dedicate himself to business.
Over the next two years, he opened five companies. Three are still active, including Capital Invest, a consulting and management firm that owns his shares in First Bank. He co-founded and owns one-quarter interest in a firm that operates the University of Donja Gorica, a four-acre, 4,500-student private institution in Podgorica that his son Blazo attends. He also co-founded Global Montenegro, a tourism consulting and management firm, which owns acreage along the coast in the tourist town of Budva, according to Montenegrin corporate registration records.
The wealthiest members of the Djukanovic family are the prime minister’s brother and sister. According to Montenegrin property records, Aco Djukanovic or his firms own at least 22 business properties and four apartments, several in downtown Podgorica and, along the coast, and an acre in tourist haven Herceg Novi. Montenegrin corporate registration records show he closed Monte Nova but still co-owns two construction companies, Urbis Nova and Invest Nova, which are involved in coastal real estate development.
Aco Djukanovic has a knack for making money. In 2005, he bought shares of the Montenegrin Commercial Bank for more than $1.7 million at about $636 per share, according to bank records. He sold them the next year to OTP Bank of Hungary, which bought out all shareholders for a premium of about $3,767 per share — leaving Aco a six-fold return on his investment.
Djukanovic’s sister, Ana Kolarevic, owns four apartments in downtown Podgorica. A former supreme court justice appointed during Djukanovic’s tenure, Kolarevic specializes in business law. She owns a legal firm and Edu Cons, a consulting and management company. Her 25-year-old son Edin is also an entrepreneur who owns and operates three design, consulting, and building firms.
In July 2008, Parliament, controlled by Djukanovic’s party, passed a law declaring five-star hotels to be in the national interest of Montenegro. The law allows these private companies to confiscate surrounding land using eminent domain. The new law also loosens the rules for large developments and can even force small landowners to give up land to neighbors with bigger lots and houses. At the same time, Montenegro has embarked on an international, state-funded advertising campaign to lure upscale tourists to the country.
The Djukanovic government has also moved to make the prime minister the president of the board of the Montenegrin Investment Promotion Agency. The position allows him to control and negotiate foreign investment deals. Djukanovic has traveled extensively to Russia and last year to Dubai looking for investment along Montenegro’s coastline.
In 2006, MANS, the watchdog group, again complained about the prime minister, arguing to the Constitutional Court that Djukanovic’s seat on the investment board was a conflict of interest. This time MANS won, with the court ruling it unconstitutional for the prime minister to sit on the board of an independent public institution. But such matters are never that simple in Montenegro. Another body, the Djukanovic-friendly Commission for Determining Conflicts of Interest, ruled that the prime minister’s membership was not a conflict because he receives no pay.
Djukanovic has so far ignored the constitutional court’s decision and still holds his position. In 2008 when Djukanovic, prompted by the sudden illness of his successor, moved back into the top level of government, he promised to distance himself from his private enterprises. “As long as I am in a state function I don’t want to do business,” Djukanovic was quoted as saying in Vijesti, the Montenegrin daily. But the prime minister has not acted quickly on that promise. Records show that Djukanovic recently re-registered three of his firms, which will keep them operating through at least 2010.