TIRANA, March 9 – The Democratic Party’s General Secretary Arben Ristani met prosecutors on Friday to provide explanations concerning last week’s DP lobbying scandal which alleged the party gave lobbying funds to a US company through a Russian-linked offshore fund.
After leaving the prosecution, Ristani told the media he had testified concerning the lobbying funds accusations, and that prosecutors’ doubts were based on the contracts published in the US.
He added the DP has nothing to hide and that all payments to the Muzin Capitol company were made according to contracts, clarifying “all payments for these contracts have been conducted through the banks.”
BIRN started investigating on the funds used by the DP since last November, but it was the recent US magazine Mother Jones’ article which raised doubts on the unclarities concerning funds paid to Muzin Capitol in DP’s favor amounting to $675 thousand that raised debate, as the DP has said it only paid $25,000.
Muzin Capitol had to give the Department of Justice additional information regarding its payment declarations – information saying it had received three payments in favor of the DP, one of which made by offshore company Biniatta Trade LP in March 2017.
The DP has so far accepted only one $25,000, and its leader Lulzim Basha said his party has paid only the amount it has declared and nothing more, denying any connection between Biniatta Trade LP and his party in a local talk show, despite the Muzin Capitol’s clarification documents stating otherwise.
Basha said Prime Minister Edi Rama was using the issue to try to shift the conversation away from the government scandals allegedly involving drug trafficking and ties to organized crime.
Muzin’s more specifically stated it was compensated by “Biniatta Trade LP for activities organized for the Democratic Party to promote Albanian conservative leadership through US businesses and political leaders.
The Mother Jones investigation, however, further deepened the issue by alleging the Scotland-based offshore Biniatta Trade is majorly controlled by two Russians, in a series of investigations trying to link the Trump administration with Russia.
However, as Tirana Times has previously reported, this is not the first time Albanian parties are caught in bad press for seeking attention for domestic purposes at the American stage.
The governing Socialist Party had a similar incident some years ago, when it was accused of illegal donations to the Obama campaign.
The highlighted issue by Tirana Times has been that ultimately all three major parties in Albania have hired US lobbying firms with little to no transparency on the source of the money.
