Company that deceived the Albanian state by stealing 5 million euros, government reacts

Taxments, police and prosecutors have been placed in pursuit of all Gulf assets, property and bank accounts. In addition to police research for Gulf managers, authorities are analyzing all documentation to whitewash the scheme of selling oil and gasoline to which hundreds of different businesses and citizens were deceived.

The total damage is approximately 5m euros, divided between debt to privates and the state. Gulf operated through the rented environments, and at this point, the copyright hope is to block accounts.

Meanwhile, the government reacts for the first time to close the Gulf company's activity. Energy Minister Damian Gjiknuri said it is not the first case a company goes bankrupt and that the ministry has no regulatory role in the fuel trade.

The ministry has only technical control of quality and products. It's not the first case there are companies that go bankrupt, cheat and stories like that. From this point of view are tax organs that are following this process. They are tax organs with the performance of this process and we hope that very soon those responsible will be brought to justice”, Gjiknuri said.

Gulf was not unknown to Albanian government officials. At the opening ceremony and the shift in ownership made a few years ago, attended by several cabinet ministers Rama, including Energy Minister Damian Gjiknuri himself, Environment Minister Lefter Coca, his successor, Blend Klosi, and former Parliament Speaker, currently President Ilir Meta.

The shell company that Gulf owns in Albania is owned by Georgian national Alexandre Gogokhia, linked to former senior officials in this country. He has been involved in money laundering schemes in fiscal paradise and part of a scandal that led to the arrest of former Tbilisi Mayor in Georgia.

Later investigations revealed that Alexandra Gogokhia managed the businesses of former Georgian Defence Minister Davit Kezerashvili. He was arrested for corruption and money laundering at the Paris airport as he set off to travel right to Albania in 2013, the same year that Gulf opened activity in our country.

With the investigation of the documentation, the Albanian prosecution is expected to request information from Georgian authorities on Gulf's activity and people declared in police search.

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