New site of E-Gambling
Even after more than six years, the Special Prosecutor’s Office has not completed a preliminary inquiry into the E-Gambling Montenegro case of international fraud with the sale of fake online betting licenses in Montenegro worth millions.
The above stated was confirmed by Special Prosecutor Sanja Jovicevic.
“In regard to your question on the case, I hereby inform you that the Special Prosecutor’s Office has collected piles of business documents in the preliminary inquiry. Moreover, a court expert in economics and finance analyzed the same whereupon it was deemed necessary to seek international legal assistance and the procedure thereof has been initiated”, Jovicevic said.
The E-Gambling Montenegro Affair was launched in 2015, when an international fraud worth millions involving the sale of fake licenses for online betting in Montenegro was detected. At that time, serious suspicions of money laundering were discovered, after which the Special Prosecutor’s Office initiated a preliminary inquiry, and the former Anti-Money Laundering Administration also worked on the case.
E-Gambling Montenegro received a license for betting games on 20 April 2012, and on 14 May 2012, the first license for organizing games of chance over the Internet. However, it had the privilege of opening as many as 21 betting sites for that one license. Other organizers did not have such a privilege. Also, there were at least 15 other sites with the statement that they received a license from E-Gambling, which thus practically took over the role of the Lotteries and Gaming Authority, i.e. the state, and charged for licenses thereof.
Former deputy director of the Montenegrin Commercial Bank (Crnogorska Komercijalna Banka – CKB), Laszlo Sardi, was for years the director of the offshore company Merig International, from the Seychelles, which founded “E-Gambling” with 55.5 percent of the capital share.
Milovan Maksimovic from Podgorica, a first cousin of the President of Montenegro Milo Djukanovic, was the executive director of another offshore company- Royale Online Limited, from the British Virgin Islands, which co-founded E-Gambling.
In 2015, Maksimović tried to hide this fact, but numerous documents obtained by investigative journalists proved the opposite. He also sent a letter to the former Minister of Finance and the current Governor of the Central Bank of Montenegro, Radoje Zugic on behalf of E-Gambling Montenegro. Finally, the legal representative of E-Gambling Montenegro was none other than Ana Djukanovic, a widely known layer and the sister of Montenegro’s president.
Milovan Maksimovic
While the preliminary inquiry was under way, E-Gambling Montenegro was shut down on 27 February 2020, as well as 35 sites that received licenses from Maksimovic’s company. However, the business of selling online betting licenses has never really stopped. Today, there is still a site that is almost identical to the once official site of E-Gambling Montenegro, which has retained the same logo and the same name from which only the word Montenegro was dropped.
On 1 April 2016, Hungarian Endre Kodolanyi founded E-GAMBLING.COM Limited in London, which now operates behind the active E-Gambling site, and which has the same logo as the former E-Gambling Montenegro. Investigative journalists contacted Kodolanyi, who confirmed that he had founded the said company in London.
“I was the director of E-Gambling Montenegro, but that company has been closed for several years. While it worked, it was reviewed by inspectors, which we successfully passed all the checks insomuch without a single reprimand. I am surprised that you write about criminal proceedings, I have no knowledge of that – I have not worked for the company for years”, Kodolanyi told a journalist and researcher from Hungary. He also answered the question about his relation with the first cousin of President Djukanovic.
“I know Milovan Maksimovic. We do not talk often, maybe once or twice a year. If you have any information about why criminal proceedings are conducted against the company, I would ask you to share it with me. This surprises me very much, because we did not receive any warning letters, and as I have already written, the company has been closed for years”, concluded Kodolanyi.
Endre Kodolanyi
Mirotic: “They told me to just sign as a mere formality”
There are still two active companies in the Central Registar of businesses, which were previously illegally licensed by E-Gambling Montenegro. Those are Sonya and Serpil. Both companies had active internet betting sites. One of them, with the domain www.malpasbets.com, promoted betting and a luxury five-star Malpas hotel and casino, located in the Kyrenia district in the Turkish part of Cyprus.
The offshore company Stars Media Holding is the founder of those companies, while the executive is 84-year-old Vukosava Mirotic from Podgorica, who claims that she has nothing to do with those companies.
The investigative journalist talked to Mirotic.
“Everyone was amazed… I am not a director. I do not know what they did. They told me to just sign, a mere formality. I worked for Titeks (a textile company) as a weaver woman. “I don’t even know how to use a (smart) phone”, said the 84-year-old director of two online casinos, one of which has a land base in the aforesaid elite hotel in Cyprus. She pointed out that she was never questioned by the prosecutors because of the E Gambling Montenegro case.
A letter sent by the minister to Maksimovic
Authors: Vladimir Otasevic, Jovo Martinović, Marko Vesovic and Andras Kiraly
Peter Erdelyi assisted in the research.
This research was financially supported by the “Investigative Journalism for Europe” (IJ4EU). The views of the authors do not necessarily reflect the views of the donors.
