DREAM / The Prime Minister resigns and wakes up under the Parisian bridge!

 Kliko këtu për të tjera
Voxpress:

Money laundering, pledge of letters, 75% of them do not receive an answer

2022-07-03 20:34:59Fokus SHKRUAR NGA DANIELA ZISI
Money laundering, pledge of letters, 75% of them do not receive an answer
Illustrative photo

The money laundering investigations of the Korça Prosecutor's Office have remained hostage to the letter orders. According to official data, of the 620 letters sent by the Albanian side throughout 2020, only 25% of them were answered, putting the work of all the country's prosecutions at risk of failure.

The attempt of a Greek businessman in the city of Korça to transfer the sum of 400,000 euros to an account in Switzerland set Albanian law enforcement agencies in motion.

It was suspected that the financial transaction could be a case of money laundering.

The case was referred in 2019 to the Prosecutor's Office of Korça by the General Directorate Against Money Laundering (DPPP), for the investigation of the origin of this amount.

Greek citizen, Th. V., who was investigated by the Korça Prosecutor's Office for "Cleaning of Criminal Proceeds", was registered with the CKB as the owner of a company with the object of activity "Medical and Radiological Services".

The Greek businessman had carried out several financial operations with large amounts in second-level banks and then tried to transfer them to Switzerland, with the argument that there was no security in Korça, actions that increased the suspicions that it could be a scheme to hide of the source of money in order to clean it.

In addition to the money laundering proceedings, the Korça Prosecutor's Office also placed under preventive seizure the sums of 355,093 euros, 144,646 dollars and 142,450 alleks in second level banks in Albania.

The verification of the balance sheets of the commercial company that was run by the Greek citizen, a laboratory doctor by profession, revealed that the income provided by this activity was lower compared to the circulation of funds that he carried out in Albanian banks.

During the verifications, the Greek businessman claimed that he had brought 200,000 euros from Greece through the border point of Kapshtica, without declaring it. This did not convince the Prosecutor's Office of Korça, which by means of a letter requested evidence and financial data from the Greek authorities.

But, even though three years have passed, the investigation against the Greek doctor continues to remain suspended, since the evidence requested by the Korca Prosecutor's Office through letters to the Greek and Swiss authorities, where it is suspected that the doctor would buy shares on the stock market, have not yet been answered . The delays exceed any reasonable time limit for the prosecution, which continues to keep his assets blocked.

For so long, the preventive seizure on his bank account continues to remain in force, despite the businessman's continuous requests to the Court of Korça for the removal of the property insurance measure.

The head of the Korca Prosecutor's Office, Dhorina Theodhori, admits that, in the conditions when the foreign authorities have not yet responded to the letters regarding this case, the Greek citizen, who is being investigated in a free state, has started the legal procedures to ensure the very answers to the letter orders from Greece and Switzerland.

"The receipt of letters from the persons under investigation, accompanied by the apostille stamp, is in accordance with the Albanian legislation, as this detail is provided for in the conventions of cooperation and legal assistance and as such prevails over the local law", - admits the head of the Prosecution of Korça, Dhorina Theodhori.

But, this is not the only case, when the fate of the investigations depends on the letters.

The Albanian authorities declare that they remain for years waiting for letter orders from other countries, which are the reason for the delay of the investigations of dozens of proceedings.

In the period 2019-2021, Korça Police has referred 45 cases to the prosecution for "Cleaning of Criminal Proceeds". During the same period, the Prosecutor's Office of Korça has registered 30 cases, in addition to the cases carried over from previous years, which, despite the extension in time of the investigation, have not yet been completed.

More specifically, the Korça Prosecutor's Office declares that there are 15 cases under investigation, for which letters have been sent to Greece, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Lebanon, etc., which have not yet received a response and are at risk of being dismissed for lack of try.

"None of the investigations started by her during the last 3 years for cleaning the proceeds of the criminal offense has been sent for trial", - says the Korça Prosecutor's Office for Investigative Network Albania

For almost half of the money laundering files, the investigation continues, while the rest have either been dismissed or suspended.

The investigative body of Korça informs that in 2019, 2 cases were dismissed, in 2020, 3 cases and the same in 2021, while 5 cases were suspended during the same period of time.

Money laundering, pledge of letters, 75% of them do not receive an answer
Official data from the Korça Prosecutor's Office

For the legal expert in the city of Korça, Esmerald Xhafa, the "fate" of a letter is related to the way it is drafted, while he attributes the lack of responses from other countries to deficiencies in the formulation of requests from the Albanian side.

"It happens that the formulation of the requests, their reasoning and the guiding elements, which our prosecution makes available to the counterpart bodies, do not meet the criteria for the activation of the law enforcement bodies of foreign countries. So, the way in which legal assistance is requested or requests are formulated also determines the fate of a positive or negative response from the authority that presents the request", expert Xhafa explains to INA MEDIA.

Albania's money laundering indicators have fluctuated up and down.

This year too, Albania landed in the gray area of ​​the FATF list (a mechanism of the European Commission that evaluates the risk of money laundering). MoneyVal, the next monitoring report for Albania, published during May 2022, concluded that our country has not significantly improved measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing in accordance with FATF recommendations.

"This decrease is mainly related to proactive investigations, with the increase in the number of confiscations of assets derived from illegal activities", - explains the security expert, Fabian Zhilla.

No response to 70% of letters

Unanswered letters have become the "Achilles' heel" for prosecutors throughout the country. Statistics show that only 1/4 of letters are answered, risking the failure of investigations from the Albanian side.

Referring to the report of the General Prosecutor's Office, for 2020, 620 letters were sent to foreign judicial authorities.

The largest number of requests was sent to neighboring countries, such as Greece, with 128 requests, Italy, 127, Kosovo, 53, Germany, 44, as well as to countries such as Cameroon, Togo, Ghana, India, etc.

But the small number of responses is worrying, with only 157 requests or only 25% of them.

Money laundering, pledge of letters, 75% of them do not receive an answer
Official data from the General Prosecutor's Office

According to the data of the General Prosecutor's Office in 2020, despite 286 cases of money laundering, which were referred to the prosecution body, the total number of people convicted of money laundering in 2020 decreased by 30% compared to 2019.

In 2020, there was only one person convicted of money laundering with anonymous accounts. In 2019, no one was convicted of this criminal offense; in 2018 there are two convicts and in 2017, none.

The General Prosecutor's Office, until the moment of publication of this article, has not responded to the request for information regarding the analysis of the reasons for the failure of the letter orders.

However, a confidential source told INA MEDIA that the impasse lies in the agreements that the Albanian side has with other countries.

"The agreements are generally of a criminal nature, while most of the letter orders are administrative matters, so there is so little return of the letter orders", - explained the source on the condition of anonymity.

While the Ministry of Justice, which is the authority through which letters are sent and their answers are awaited, responded to the request for information regarding the reasons for the malfunctioning of international cooperation, with the argument that a longer time was needed to provide this information.

Although almost two months have passed since this request, the Department of Justice has not yet responded, until the moment of publication of this article.

On the other hand, Albanian law-enforcement bodies seem more ready to respond, making the required evidence available to foreign authorities.

Out of 550 letters received from abroad throughout 2020, the Albanian side has responded to 296 of them or 53% of them.
Arben Lena, president of the Chamber of Advocacy in Korça, finds that the lack of answers is also due to inaccuracies in the drafting of requests by Albanian law-enforcement bodies.

"It's not that they don't respond, but the possibility that there are mistakes and the data is not found is not excluded. One wrong letter is enough and it does not appear in the system. So, prosecutors can fail to receive data or evidence from other countries even for a trivial mistake, which can lead to a lack of response", Belishta argues for INA MEDIA.

The former chief judge of Korça, Admir Belishta, also an expert in criminal law, lists several reasons that lead to the failure of investigations and prevent the finalization of money laundering proceedings.

"The informality of investigative actions, the insufficient specialization of the structures dealing with the tracking, operation and investigation of these issues, as well as a greater attention of state structures to these components, would make international cooperation more effective and the fight against organized crime there would be positive results", he concludes.

Expert Fabian Zhilla thinks that, unlike what happened with the BENELUX countries, where cooperation is very good, with some countries in the region and generally bordering countries, such as Greece, this cooperation is not effective.

"The main problem is related to forms of communication, bureaucracies, but also to the lack of trust between partner agencies," says Zhilla.

The "deadlock" with some of the countries in terms of letter orders has also been felt in the courtrooms.

"In judicial practice, - argued Belishta, - we have found that international cooperation has not been effective with all countries. I can say that with Greece we have had problems in terms of returning answers to letter orders, which have been delayed in time. This problem has not been identified with other countries, even those that are far from Albania, such as the United States of America", he clarifies.

Even the head of the Korca Prosecutor's Office, Dhorina Theodhori, complains that as a result of the lack of international cooperation, their work risks being thrown into the "wind".

"The lack of answers from other countries has blocked the investigations, preventing us from continuing our actions. Greece and North Macedonia, but also the countries of the Middle East are the most problematic ones, as far as the return of the answers to the letter orders is concerned", she emphasizes.

Throughout 2020, the Korça Prosecutor's Office has sent 63 orders, while in the last 3 years, an account worth 55 million ALL has been seized.

The Prosecutor's Office of Korça has encountered the same difficulty for the confiscation of assets placed under preventive seizure, which have remained hostage to letters of order from other states.

Bank accounts, the value of which reaches millions of euros or other assets, suspected to have been raised with income from criminal activities, have not been finalized with their transfer in favor of the state and the prosecution has been obliged to release the assets placed under preventive seizure.

Money laundering business

One of the most common ways of money laundering in Albania by foreign citizens is that of opening businesses, behind which are persons involved in criminal activities. They intend to hide the origin of the money through financial transactions to or from Albania.

The southeastern region, also due to its border position, is more favorable for establishing contacts and opening businesses by foreigners, mainly from the neighboring countries, Greece and North Macedonia. The Prosecutor's Office of Korça has investigated some of them for money laundering over the years.

"Being a border area, Korça enters the map of high informality and the transfer of money mainly from emigration, so it deserves attention in relation to money laundering and the various forms of money laundering", - thinks Fabian Žilla, crime expert of organized.

Similar to the first case, another Greek citizen with the initials Th. M., was investigated by the Prosecutor's Office of Korça for laundering the proceeds of the criminal offense due to large value transactions from Greece to Albania.

The investigation began, after it was established that the amount of 28,342 euros was transferred from the account of a business in Cyprus to his personal account, at a second level bank in Bilisht. After a few days, 79,775 euros were transferred from the same company.

The Greek citizen, who claimed to have a scrap metal business, presented a foreign contract to justify the transactions, drawn up just two days before the first payment was made.

From the investigations of the prosecution, it was found that the company registered with headquarters in the city of Belize, Cyprus, had agreed to lend the Greek citizen, under investigation for money laundering, an amount of 250 thousand euros, with 3% interest. The amount would be transferred to a second level bank in Albania.

In addition to this contract, the Greek citizen declared to the prosecution that with the same company he had signed 2 other foreign contracts in the amounts of 300,000 euros and 120,000 euros.

But the investigation proved that despite the contract no transaction was made by the Cypriot company. Also, from the verifications of the prosecution, it was found that Th. M., did not have any business registered in the KKB.

The scheme used in this case by the Greek citizen to launder money of dubious origin, consisted of withdrawing the money in cash from the Albanian bank and then manually passing it to Greece, together with the accompanying documentation of the bank through the border point of Kapshtica. but without declaring them according to law.

In one case Th. M., was able to escape the control of the Albanian customs authorities and passed to the other side of the border with the amount of 40,000 euros and would continue to follow the same scheme until the bank account was empty, in the event that the Korça Prosecutor's Office would not to intervene, starting money laundering investigations.

After several requests to the Court of Korça for the removal of the preventive seizure, the Greek businessman managed to free his bank accounts and the criminal proceedings for money laundering had the same fate, which was dismissed by the court.

The law enforcement bodies of Greece and Cyprus also in this case did not respond to the letters of order for more than 3 years, causing the Albanian authorities to have their hands tied and be powerless to bring the businessman suspected of laundering before the black squads money

Arben Lena, head of the Bar Association of Korça, says that the scheme of money laundering through foreign transactions is the easiest to detect, considering the fiscal system in the EU, where every penny is declared.

He lists as problematic the cases when money enters Albania undeclared and then returns to investments in the form of business.

"These businesses from different fields manage to create a fictitious volume of work, of such proportions that from an economic point of view it is impossible, while from the point of view of the law it is a clear money laundering scheme", - explains Arben Lena.

Zhilla sees the stalemate with the Greek side as related to the points of contact, so he suggests that ways be found to strengthen ties.

"It seems that we do not have good points of contact with the Greek state. These two cases show that meetings should definitely be held and developed at the level of individual partnership, that is, agency by agency and not left on the normal path", - suggests Zhilla.

Money laundering, flood of denunciations

The data of the General Prosecutor's Office show that crimes related to money laundering have increased, as has the number of defendants, but statistics show that the rate of convictions for this criminal offense is much lower than referrals; which means that the prosecutions fail to secure sufficient evidence to complete the investigative files, a part of which must come from other countries.

Referring to the data from the annual reports of the General Directorate Against Money Laundering (DPPP), money laundering is attempted through: investments in real estate with an unknown source of funds, generally credited in physical money; investments in luxury goods by persons who do not justify the source of funds or persons with precedents; suspicious transfers on arrival or departure, even in attempts involving subjects - foreign citizens - and unjustified with supporting documentation; sponsorships, lending by and for third parties, without establishing a possible connection between the parties, gifts.

Thus, in 2019, 25 reports were made to the prosecutor's office, while 241 references were made to the DPPSH. From the total of 266 referrals for 2019, for 151 referrals the origin of the criminal offense from which the dirty money was derived is not known.

The figures showed an upward trend throughout 2020, during which 1424 cases of suspicious activity were reported. The largest part, with 703 reports, is occupied by banks.

During this period, another area of ​​money laundering emerged, using the Covid-19 pandemic as an opportunity to secure illegal income or enable the money laundering process.

Throughout 2020, cases have been reported related to suspicious transactions or even fraud for the sale and purchase of medical products or the illegal benefit of aid, while just a few days ago Italy finalized an operation for a fraud scheme between Albanian and Italian doctors, with millions of euros in damage.

Even throughout 2021, the numbers have remained high and 50 cases have been sent to the prosecutor's office, while 208 cases have been sent to the police. What is noted is that 21 cases were referred for computer and financial fraud and another 21 cases for abuse of office.

Although Albania has taken some very qualitative steps in terms of strengthening the legislation, experts think that the weak point remains the assets or money that comes from corruption.

"We have no claims in foreign jurisdictions regarding assets that come from criminal offenses related to corruption. So, the assets that come from criminal offenses related to corruption are at a low level, while with the assets that come from criminal offenses committed by organized crime, Albania has made some qualitative steps", Fabian Zhilla explains.

According to Zhilla, the ratio of seized assets to those confiscated so far is 1 to 2, "which is not a bad ratio, compared to the countries of the region".

Laundering of immigrants' money from their families

A 64-year-old woman from Erseka was investigated by the Korca Prosecutor's Office after 2 suspicious banking transactions from Belgium in the amount of 13 thousand euros. The woman claimed that her daughter had sent her the monetary values ​​from Belgium, but in reality the transaction turned out to have been made from the account of a company that produced ropes.

Further investigations revealed that the beneficiary of the money would be a person deported 18 times from Greece, with whom the 64-year-old's daughter had traveled several times outside of Albania.

Economic immigration has served in many similar cases, investigated by the Korca Prosecutor's Office as an alibi for persons investigated for money laundering to justify their wealth. Even in this case, obtaining evidence from the countries where they lived remains a problem.

"The typology of the investigation of these criminal offenses is such that it makes it impossible to verify the causal link between the evidenced property and the product of the criminal offense, for which the person under investigation is suspected", - says the head of the Korca Prosecutor's Office, Dhorina Theodhori .

According to her, most of those prosecuted for money laundering are persons convicted inside and outside the country and fewer are foreign citizens.

Galeria fotografike (
)


Në përputhje me standarded JTI

Video

SHIKO KANALIN NE YOUTUBE
×