TIRANA, May 26 – Former central bank governor Ardian Fullani, sacked after the theft of five million euros from the bank’s vault, is demanding his reinstatement as head of Bank of Albania.
The request was presented to the administrative court by his lawyer Erinda Ballanca on Thursday.
In addition, Fullani is seeking €102,000 in compensation for wrongful dismissal after he was officially cleared from abuse of office charges.
The request to return to his previous job is a new development in the lawsuit filed against parliament and Bank of Albania for wrongful dismissal.
According to the initial lawsuit, former Fullani was claiming unpaid wages for his entire term as governor of the Bank of Albania on unfair termination grounds.
The former central bank governor was arrested in September 2014 on abuse of office charges after about Euro five million went missing from the bank vault.
Later that month, parliament sacked Fullani from his position as central bank governor through a secret ballot. Two former central bank employees have received lengthy prison sentences after they were found guilty in the theft case.
Fullani himself was accused of abusing office by not appointing a deputy governor and not doing enough to prevent the theft. He also faced charges for avoiding normal procedures regarding the purchase of a hotel for office space. However, Fullani was found not guilty by the court in October 2015, and was acquitted despite the prosecutor’s request for a five-year prison sentence.
The Appeals Court upheld the decision of the first instance court and therefore the former governor was officially cleared of all charges. Prior to his discharge in 2014, Fullani had held the position of Bank of Albania governor for nine years, while his second term as governor was set to expire in 2018. Parliament elected the current governor Genti Sejko as the new head of the country’s central bank in February 2015.
