The Special Court has decided to replace the security measures of house arrest for 4 of the defendants in the Bankers case. Specifically, for Leonidha Çobon, Hong Ping Xiao, Ardit Kero and Lianyi Wang, the security measure of a ban on leaving the country and an obligation to appear was imposed.
The request for the replacement of security measures was requested by the two special prosecutors Enkelejda Millonai and Anita Jella themselves because the 9-month pre-trial detention period has expired, while the lawyers themselves requested the total termination of the measure. In this file, there are several other defendants who are being investigated without security measures and are free.
These 4 people are charged with "Creating fraudulent schemes related to VAT", "Hiding income", "Laundering the proceeds of crime", "Abuse of office" and "Failure to perform duties by tax authorities".
The action against "Bankers Petroleum" came after the company, which has been extracting oil in Patos-Marinza for more than 20 years, according to the Fier prosecutor's office, has evaded taxes in the country throughout its existence.
"Bankers Petroleum" created a fraudulent scheme to hide its income, declaring for 20 consecutive years that it was making losses, totaling 11.7 billion lek, while during this time it exported or sold 532 billion lek of oil. In this way, for 20 years it avoided tax obligations, and even benefited from VAT refunds.