The Podgorica Higher Court has blocked the disposal of two apartments and two garages in Porto Montenegro on suspicion that two million euros were laundered through the purchase of these properties and that the property was acquired through criminal activity.

Real estate in Porto Montenegro is registered on the Podgorica-based company “Sailor Check”, founded in May 2017, with a registered activity of renting and managing real estate. Behind the company is a foreign owner.

In the decision on the prohibition of disposal of real estate, it is stated that in the foreign currency account of “Sailor Check”, from June to November 2017, eight inflows were recorded out of a total of slightly over two million euros, all from the account of the company “Eltex Trade” Ltd, which was opened in a bank in the Czech Republic, and for which there is a reasonable suspicion that the funds come from criminal activity.

The inflow of money was recorded on the basis of a purchase agreement for the purchase of spare parts for cars, where “Eltex Trade” is the buyer and “Sailor Check” is the seller, but already in September 2017, an agreement on the replacement of obligations (novation) through a loan agreement was concluded.

Under the new contract, Sailor Check was obliged to convert the money into a loan and repay it in two and a half years. The money was then transferred to the bank account of the Podgorica-based company and transferred to the Tivat company PM 1.5 (the owner of Porto Montenegro) for the purchase of real estate.

The company “Eltex Trade” Ltd is under investigation in Moldova for the criminal offenses of money laundering, corruption and related crimes, according to the decision of the Podgorica Higher Court, whose investigating judge appreciated the prosecution's proposal as legally based and on clear evidence of suspicious financial transactions that indicate money laundering.

Given the gravity of the crime in question and the international nature of the investigation, interim measures of confiscation of property are justified in order to prevent further concealment and misappropriation of ill-gotten gains.

ASJ’s search of the British Register of Companies found that Eltex Trade Ltd was registered in September 2014 and voluntarily shut down in October 2023, and over the years its beneficial ownership has been hidden behind companies from Belize and the Seychelles, which are among the most famous offshore zones in the world.

Over the years, Karen Azaryan from Armenia has been listed as a person with a significant stake in the British firm, while a separate internet media search shows that Eltex Trade Ltd was mentioned in a document of the Moldovan prosecutor's office in connection with the embezzlement of $1 billion from Moldova in 2014.

Azaryan is one of 100 Armenian nationals who have served as proxy directors for a network of shell companies since 2017 that have been used by prominent oligarchs to siphon hundreds of millions of dollars out of Eastern Europe, tax evasion and lobbying services.

The scheme is estimated to be similar to the so-called Russian money launderer, where tens of billions of dollars have been taken out of Russia, through Moldova, to European countries. Money laundering schemes have also been used by Baltic banks to transfer money to European countries.

To be mentioned, the investigating judge of the Podgorica Higher Court also appreciated that the ownership structure of Podgorica's “Sailor Check” shows frequent changes of owners, which may indicate an attempt to conceal the true owner and the origin of the money.

As indicated in the decision on the prohibition of disposal of apartments and garages in Porto Montenegro, the original owner is Chekus Yevgeniy, the new owner is Prokutin Ivan, and the transfer of ownership was made non-monetarily, which indicates a suspicion of a possible fictitious transaction.

Action for Social Justice

Ines Mrdovic