TIRANA, Jan. 28 – A UK-based law firm has dismissed as untrue allegations that linked Albanian Parliament Speaker Ilir Meta to a corruption scandal involving the debt collection of Albania’s power distribution operator in 2010, then run by Czech Republic’s CEZ.
The reaction came in a letter to Albanian authorities by UK-based Clifford Chance law firm which represented Albania in an arbitration trial with DIA, a debt collection company owned by Albanian businessman Kastriot Ismailaj who is currently in jail on money laundering charges. DIA was claiming 130 million euros for the breach of the debt collection contract in 2013 but a ruling by a Vienna arbitration court last December turned down its claim.
Allegations in an investigative report by BIRN news agency had linked Parliament Speaker and Socialist Movement for Integration head Ilir Meta as one of the beneficiaries of a fraudulent payment of Euro 4.5 million by then CEZ Shperndarje operator to DIA in 2010 and 2011. The BIRN investigative report last September heated up the Albanian political scene, leading to calls for an international investigation. Parliament Speaker Ilir Meta, who was also in power at the time the debt collection contract was signed as the key ally of the now opposition Democrats, denied any wrongdoing in the matter and said he was open to international investigation.
In its letter dated Jan. 18 but made public only this week, the international law firm described the attack against Meta as politically motivated and not based on their submissions.
“It is regrettable that the non-public nature of the arbitral process was violated when some our pleadings were leaked to the press for obvious political reasons and that some press representatives connected the name of the Honorable Speaker of the Albanian Parliament to the charge of corruption. Such was certainly not justified on the basis of our submissions,” wrote Tim Schreiber, the rebranded OSHEE distribution operator’s lead counsel in the arbitration against DIA.
“You will understand that we had to refrain from reacting in detail to such press allegations in view of the ongoing arbitration proceedings, but we can assure you that we do not avail of any evidence linking Mr. Meta with corruptive actions of DIA or of its current or former administrators,” he added in his letter to Energy Minister Damian Gjiknuri and OSHEE head Ardian à‡ela.
Last November, Albania’s parliament voted against a request by the opposition Democratic Party to launch an international investigation on a deal the Socialist-led government reached with Czech company CEZ in mid-2014 to avoid a lengthy fight in arbitration court.
The Democrats, who were in power when CEZ bought a majority stake in Albania’s distribution operator monopoly, accused the governing left-wing coalition of making a deal that cost Albania more than 600 million euros.
In mid-2014, the Albanian government agreed in an out-of-court deal to pay CEZ in annual installments in the next four years a total of Euro 95 million, an amount slightly lower to its initial investment in the Albanian distribution system, but half of the Euro 200 million CEZ had warned it would claim in international arbitration proceedings.
The CEZ Group entered the Albanian market in May 2009 by acquiring a 76 percent equity stake in the Albanian power distribution company for Euro 102 million. CEZ received a 60 million euro guarantee from the World Bank as an incentive to take over Albania’s power distributor in 2009 but could no longer claim the guarantee after its departure from Albania in early 2013. CEZ’s Albania unit accumulated huge debts due to poor collection rates and high grid levels.
