Montenegro investigates citizenship delivery procedures for Kosovo businessman Naser Ramaj

Following the arrest of Kosovo businessman with the Montenegrin passport, Naser Ramaj, suspected of tax evasion, police are controlling the legality of the procedure through which he was granted Montenegro's citizenship in October last year.

Ramaj is one of the owners of the firm “Alart Centar Budva cG”, which is building the residential-market complex Porto Budva, worth 80m euros.

Police suspect he has committed tax evasion and contributed 2m euros to that project, on whose basis he obtained citizenship through scheme known as “Golden passport”.

A day after the arrest, on August 8th, the court in Kotor imposed measures of surveillance against Ramaj, he was barred from leaving the residence, respectively, and temporarily seized travel documents.

The tribunal has stated that these measures will remain in force as long as necessary and that they will be revised every two months, until a final decision is made.

Radio Free Europe asked Ramaj's lawyer, Miro Axhiq, how his client has responded to the charge that has been brought against him.

“I confirm that I am Naser Ramaj's lawyer, but I am not authorized to provide any information on the related procedure”, he has responded briefly.

Mysteries of Substate Giving

In parallel with the criminal indictment, police have launched an immediate review of how Ramaj obtained Montenegrin citizenship during the government's mandate, which was led by Dritan Abazovic.

Montenegro's Interior Minister, Danilo Sharanovic, has said that if the procedure is confirmed to be illegal, Ramaj will be required to obtain citizenship.

“It is key to know on what basis the Ministry of Finance has given a positive view of obtaining citizenship [from Ramaj] because there is no written evidence in the ministry on which the verification [of Ramaj's business activity in Montenegro]” has been carried out, Sharanovic said on August 9th.

Aleksandar Damjanovic, who was then minister of finance, did not respond to REL's request to comment on the current minister's statements.

Police have confirmed that Ramaj's citizenship was granted because he is an investor in Porto Budva, saying it was done under Article 12 of the Montenegrin Law on citizenship.

This article stipulates that citizenship can be gained with the acceptance of a person who is “of particular importance to state, scientific, economic, cultural, economic, sports and other interests of Montenegro”.

The citizenship was granted to Ramaj on October 27th 2023 with the proposal of then Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic.

The procedure lasted about two months.

According to MPB data, Ramaj submitted the demand for citizenship on August 28, 2023, through accelerated procedure.

Two days later, Abazovic's cabinet was asked for an opinion by the finance minister regarding Ramaj's request.

On August 2nd, the Ministry of Finance responded positively, considering the Kosovo businessman's request justified.

On the basis of that opinion, Abazovic on September 14th proposed to then-innerial minister Philip Axhiq, his associate from Movement U RA, for Ramaj to be given citizenship.

Axhiqi's ministry issued a decision through which Ramaj won the status to take over Montenegro's citizenship on October 27, 2023, through accelerated procedure.

Four days later, the Abazovic government's technical mandate expired.

In whose interest was Ramaj's citizenship?

Ramaj's arrest is another test in a series of cases showing that granting citizenship has been misappreciated, assessed by the Centre for Civic Education (CGO), a centre which has been forward to this process for years.

From this centre, said that granting citizenship preceded a positive opinion of the Ministry of Finance and, as said, a raid allegedly conducted by the National Security Agency.

Ramaj left Kosovo football club in debt

From 2018 to the end of 2021, Ramaj led the football club “Fernikli” from Drenas in Kosovo. According to portal Time, he left the debt club of about 700 thousand euros, which were accumulated over the past three years.

In addition to players and trainers, this amount included debt to the Kosovo Tax Administration.

Time also cited a Ramaj statement made on social networks that the financial crisis forced him to leave the club president's position.

From “Feronicil” did not answer REL's questions about the club's debts while Ramaj was in charge.

The Agency for Registering Business in Kosovo also did not answer the REL question if Ramaj has companies registered in Kosovo.

Anything that was visible to citizens was left out of the radar of those who had to take care of state interests”, the CGO said on August 8th.

This organization asked that at the end of 2023, who was interested in Ramaj's substatement, considering that from then on, two of his companies were on the list of debtors.

<x) (new construction) had been blocked since June 2021 for a debt of over half a million euros, the CO reported at the end of November last year.

According to data from the central economic registry, “Nova gradnja” was established in 2011 with a total capital of 10 euros. The company is fully owned by Ramaj and deals with tourism, trade, hotel, import and export.

CGO announced in April 2023 that only in the first seven months of Abazovic government's mandate were 413 citizenships, through a scheme of “gold passport”.

Criminal Tribunal for Director and Company

A criminal indictment for tax evasion has also been filed against Ramaj company executive director Valentina Golubovic, as well as against the legal person, “Alart Centar Budva-CG”.

Golubovic, who was interrogated at Kotor's Prosecution on August 1st, did not answer REL questions on the matter.

The crime-fighting sector suspects that between 2016 and 2023, Ramaj has given orders to Golubovici that some of the notary notes on selling property to the complex, Porto Budva, do not appear in company accounting.

From this sector, they also said that some of the revenues from the sale of those properties were not presented in business documentation so that tax payments could be avoided.

The damage caused by Montenegro's budget so far has been determined to have seized the 2.04m-euro figure, said director of the sector's task for fighting crime, Lazar Marhapanovic, at an extraordinary press conference on August 9th.

He also said Ramaj has files on the Kosovo Police on counterfeiting documents, but did not provide more details.

REL has asked the Kosovo Police if Ramaj has any criminal records, what crimes and what period they may have been committed.

” ... based on the Law for Personal Data Protection, Kosovo Police defend the personal data of the person involved in the case, the same data given according to competence when required to the justice organs”, Kosovo Police said.

Convention on Porto Budva complex

The Porto Budva complex, Ramaj company, is building at an exclusive location near the Old Town of Budva and the Slovenianska beach, about thirty metres off the coast.

Construction, since its beginning in 2017, has been associated with doubts about corruption.

At that time, the head of the Budva municipality, Dragan Krapovic, declared that selling municipal land for “Alart Center” for that investment “was a suspicious and corrupting business of then Budva leader and municipal Assembly head Bor Lazoviq, from the Democratic Party of Socialists.

At the time in power in Montenegro was the Democratic Party of Socialists, which lost power after elections held in August 2020.

Krapovic also stated that Ramaj personally participated in drafting the planning document for the land he was buying, but then the Special State Prosecutor rejected Krapovic's criminal indictment.

“Toka was never paid with money, but through a change of debts, which was a well-trained model of the former regime”, Krapovic's Party of Democrats declared after Ramaj's arrest.

The Democrats also estimated that Marko Carevic, an official of the prorus Democratic Front who, after Krapovic, was in charge of Budva, had a “very favourable, even personal, relationship with Ramaj.

The oath that was needed for the construction of that object was a compromise measure, said Deputy Democrat Dragana Kazhangra Stanisic on August 10th, alluding to Ramaj's co-operation with the Carevqi construction company.

Porto Budva has been promoted as a complex that will have 300 apartments, a shopping mall with restaurants and cafes, and a spa centre with internal and outside swimming pools is planned.

Apartments are sold at prices of about 400 thousand euros for about 50 square metres, and up to 1.2m for a home of three 110 square metres.

The construction of Porto Budvas, though scheduled to end at the end of 1923, is not yet complete. / REL