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| Montenegro - President Milo Djukanovic |
About
Milo Djukanovic has dominated Montenegro’s politics for 30 years. He began his career in the late 1980s as a protégé of Yugoslavian leader Slobodan Milosevic, who was later tried for genocide, and he won favor with Western countries for turning his back on his mentor. In 2008, an Italian court indicted Djukanovic, who was accused of working with mobsters to smuggle cigarettes between Montenegro and Italy. He denied the accusations, and the charges were dropped because of his diplomatic immunity.
Despite announcing his retirement from politics multiple times, he has held public office for all but three years since 1991. After leaving politics in 2010, he returned as prime minister in 2012 and was elected president again in 2018.
Political Career
- President of Montenegro (2018-present, 1998-2002)
- Prime Minister of Montenegro (2012-2016, 2008-2010, 2003-2006, 1991-1998)
Leaked Details in the Pandora Papers
In the two-year window between Djukanovic’s sixth and seventh terms as prime minister, Swiss fiduciary firm LJ Management helped create a pair of trusts in 2012 in the British Virgin Islands. One named Djukanovic as the beneficiary; the other named his son, Blazo Djukanovic. The files say the source of funds for the trusts was “career earnings and investment proceeds,” but they contain no information about what assets the trusts held.
Djukanovic told ICIJ that he established his trust at a time when he did not hold public office and was engaged in private business. “I worked on the organization of business infrastructure with a view to starting business activities together with my son,” he said. Djukanovic said that the trust never had any business activity, that he did not invest funds in it and that it did not open any bank accounts.
The records show that Blazo also owned two BVI shell companies. One, Victoria Bridge Finance, received a loan partly funded by a Croatian businessman. The second shell company, Resilton Investments, controls a Montenegrin trading firm called Proenergy Montenegro, which public records show is co-owned by Marko Cosic, a board member of Croatia’s state-owned energy company.
Blazo told ICIJ that he set up the two companies when he was trying to start his career in business and that the loan was a business cost that eventually had to be written off. He said that Proenergy Montenegro was established to secure a license for energy trading but that it didn’t get the license and was closed. He added that when they started Proenergy, Cosic was a private businessman with no position in the Croatian energy firm.
LJ Management set up the trusts with the assistance of Alemán, Cordero, Galindo & Lee, or Alcogal, a prominent Panamanian law firm. In submitting due diligence forms to Alcogal for Djukanovic, in 2014, when Djukanovic was prime minister, LJ Management made no direct reference to Djukanovic’s status as a public official. The forms referred to his source of funds as “careers earnings and investment proceeds”.
Djukanovic told ICIJ that when he returned to the office of prime minister, he transferred his ownership of the Victoria Trust to his son, Blazo. LJ Management, now named Alvarium, said neither of the trusts held any assets. The firm said that by the end of 2012, it became clear that the trusts would not be used and the decision was made to terminate them, a process that was completed in 2015.
Secrecy Broker
At the heart of the Pandora Papers are 14 offshore firms that help clients establish companies in secrecy jurisdictions. This profile draws on leaked data from these providers:
1. Alcogal
Alemán, Cordero, Galindo & Lee, or Alcogal, is a go-to offshore provider for top politicians and elites in Latin America and beyond. Founded in Panama, the firm has ties to nearly half of all the politicians whose names appear in the Pandora Papers leak. Here are some of the top political figures involved.
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