TIRANA- Jan.7 – Albania’s General Prosecution Office said this week it has uncovered fraud schemes accounting for a total of Euro 60 million, following investigations in the second half of 2015, while it also said that Euro 45 million stemming from illicit activities have been seized.
According to the prosecution, the assets seized included real estate as well as several bank accounts and shares.
Topping the list was Francesco Becchetti’s KGE company, which according to prosecutors is responsible for a giant fraud scheme totaling Euro 40 million. Albanian prosecutors have issued an international arrest warrant for Becchetti on charges of money laundering and tax evasion, while the Italian businessman is currently facing extradition from the United Kingdom. Another high profile scheme is that set up by DIA owner Kastriot Ismailaj, which is believed to have caused a damage of Euro 10 million to the state budget.
Another probe led by prosecutors last year uncovered a fraudulent scheme related to the reimbursement of medical drugs which accounted for a further Euro 2 million. Behind the scheme is believed to be the head of a private pharmaceutical company in Tirana and it also involved former healthcare officials as well as the administrators of various pharmacies.
A further damage of Euro 1.5 million to the state coffers was evidenced in the sector of construction materials by Korca’s prosecution office which charged two local businessmen with setting up several companies and conducting fictitious sales between them.
According to the prosecutors, the fuel sector was responsible for damages caused to the state budget respectively by Fullpet, a fuel company through the undeclared sale of shares amounting to a total of Euro 3.5 million and Tea Oil, through the sale of 4.4 million liters of crude causing tax evasion which amounted to Euro 2.5 million. The discovery of the scheme led to the arrest of seven officials including the former deputy general director of customs.
The gambling sector was also not immune from fraud schemes either as authorities suspect the two administrators of Saturn games are responsible for a scheme which involved the purchase of electronic gambling machines in Germany and Slovenia and the declaration of much smaller amounts at customs with the purpose of tax evasion.
The Albanian prosecution office has often been criticized for slugging investigations, and also failure to act in investigations involving high level officials.
In fact, Albania’s General Prosecution Office announced this week through a press release the restructuring of the Anticorruption Task Force, an arm of the prosecution office tasked with the arrest of corrupted high level officials citing “lack of work load” .
This decision is in contradiction with previous public declarations of the General Prosecutor Adriatik Llalla who has warned about pending arrests of top level officials, arrests which thus far have failed to materialize.
