TIRANA, April 4 – Two companies, three beneficiaries and 22 shareholders in Albania have been unveiled in a huge leak of confidential documents from one of the world’s most secretive companies, Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, dubbed the Panama Papers.
Among them is also Global Fluids International, Albania’s fuel marking concessionaire, owned by two Israeli and Albanian businessmen.
Israeli news agency Haaretz reported Israeli attorney Assaf Halkin and Albanian businessman Ismail Mulati (locally known as Ismail Mulleti) as being behind the GFI Albania.
“Another business that Halkin established abroad is GFI Technologies. It was registered in May 2013 in the island of Anguilla in order to invest in Albanian high-tech companies. According to records, Halkin, an Albanian citizen named Ismail Mulati and a Canadian firm called Global Fluids International S.A. are the company’s owners,” Haaretz says.
Halkin did not respond to an inquiry by Haaretz regarding what kinds of investments the company made, if any, but commented that the goal of the company is ‘selling fuel technology.’ He told the Israeli news agency that ‘all of the Israeli shareholders’ revenue is reported to Israeli tax authorities.”
Albanian Ismail Mulleti is known as a real estate developer in Albania in the 1990s.
GFI, a subsidiary of Canada-based Eurocontrol Technics Group, started its 10-year national fuel marking and tracing contract in Albania in Sept. 2013 in partnership with the Switzerland-based Petroleum Consulting Partners, which initially held a 25 percent stake but became the sole shareholder in the concession in late 2015.
Last December, Albania’s oil supply risked a blockade after Global Fluids International, the fuel marking concessionaire, stopped its operations for one day claiming the Albanian government had failed to meet contractual obligations over crude oil marking and monitoring, the majority of which is produced in Albania and destined for export.
Back in March 2014, Albania’s Constitutional Court turned down a request by the Association of Fuel Companies requesting the cancellation of a fuel marking concession awarded to the private company over an alleged monopoly situation violating competition and creating a dominant market position.
The Panama Papers have shown 12 current or former heads of state and at least 60 people linked to current or former world leaders in the data. The files show how Mossack Fonseca clients were able to launder money, dodge sanctions and avoid tax.
