Conections
Podgorica-based company E-Gambling Montenegro, which was shut down on 27 February 2020 (according to the data in the Central Business Registrar), still operates illegally by selling fake licences for online casinos and lotteries to international partners. A close cousin of Montenegro’s president stood behind the company.
This conclusion is a result of several months of research conducted by Montenegro’s Network for Investigating Organised Crime and Corruption (LUPA) in cooperation with the Hungarian portal 444.hu.
The company has been under preliminary inquiry by the Special Prosecutor’s Office (SPO) for over six years. Behind the company, whose investigation has no end in sight, is Milovan Maksimović, a close relative of President Milo Djukanovic.
LUPA came into possession of a false certificate (licence) issued by E-Gambling Montenegro on 7 October 2021, valid until 7 October 2022, to the offshore company OG Global Access Limited from the British Virgin Islands.
The certificate bears the seal of a company closed for a full year and a half before the date of issuance, as well as the signature of its former executive director, Endre Kodolanyi.
The offshore company OG Global Access Limited is behind a well-known site – Fun88king.com, which hosts online betting.
Fake license
Fun88 is boasted as a leading online gambling company in Asia that offers a variety of exciting gaming products from Sportsbook, in-play sports betting, live casino, slot games, lottery products etc. A total of over 100 casino games from a variety of baccarat, slots, roulette and other casino games can be played in Fun88 Casino as advertised on its site. The casino offers an average of 10,000 different sports games every month and worldwide competitions in Fun88’s Sportsbook.
Fun88 cooperates with a variety of prominent gaming platforms which includes One Works, Entwine, Microgaming, PlayTech, Betsoft- reads the Fan 88 website.
The late world-famous NBA basketball player Kobe Bryant, who tragically died in a helicopter crash in January 2020, was a former ambassador and promoter of the online brand Fun 88.
The Fun 88 website shows that ambassadors and promoters of this online betting company include the former NBA player Steve Nash and a legend of the British football club Liverpool, Robbie Fowler.
Site Fun88
Fun 88 is the official sponsor on the kit of the English Premier League club Newcastle United FC. This football club was founded in 1892 and has won the English title four times.
The E-Gambling Montenegro scandal arose in 2015, when international fraud worth millions of euros involving the sale of fake licences for online betting in Montenegro was revealed. At that time, serious suspicions of money laundering emerged, after which the Special Prosecutor’s Office launched a preliminary inquiry. However, a proper formal investigation has never been initiated. The main difference lays in the fact that, according to Montenegrin law, a preliminary inquiry can last indefinitely without any formal completion while a prosecutorial investigation is formal and limited to 6 ie. 8 months maximum whereupon either an indictment is published or the case is formally closed without trial. In addition to prosecutors, the former Anti-Money Laundering Administration also worked on the case.
E-Gambling Montenegro received a licence for betting games on 20 April 2012, followed by the first licence for organising lottery games on the internet on 14 May 2012. However, the company had the privilege to open as many as 21 betting websites on account of that one licence, which other competitors were not allowed. In addition, at least 15 other websites stated that they had received a licence from E-Gambling. The company thus practically took over the role of the Lotteries and Gaming Authority, and charged for licences instead of the state.
Former director of Montenegro’s Lotteries and Gaming Authority, Ilija Vukcevic, said for the purposes of this research that he had contacted the Special Police Department over the E-Gambling Montenegro case in 2016.
“After we initiated the procedure of revoking the concession to the company E-Gambling Montenegro, we received a series of questions from the authorities. Of course, we replied and shared all the required documents. I was the head of the Lotteries and Gaming Authority for only a year. I do not know what has happened with the case since. I can only say that I was summoned by the Special Prosecutor’s Office to testify as a citizen on this issue in December 2021,” Vukcevic said.
As the prosecution was carrying out its preliminary inquiry, on 27 February 2020, E-Gambling Montenegro was shut down, as well as 35 websites that had received a licence from Maksimovic’s company. However, the business of selling online betting licenses has never really stopped. Today, there is still a website almost identical to the once official E- Gambling Montenegro site, which has retained the same logo and the same name from which only the word Montenegro was removed.
On 1 April 2016, a Hungarian named Endre Kodolanyi registered the company E-GAMBLING.COM Limited in London, which now operates behind the active E Gambling website, and has the same logo as the former E-Gambling Montenegro.
Site Fun88
The investigative team has contacted Kodolanyi, who confirmed that he had founded the London company and that he was occasionally in contact with Montenegro’s president’s first cousin.
In March this year, there were changes at the head of the Special Prosecutor’s Office, which had delayed taking official action in the E-Gambling Montenegro case for years. The new head of the Special Office is expected to bring the case back to light and finish it with an indictment and a trial.
Watch the documentary about the E-Gambling affair:
Authors: Vladimir Otašević, Jovo Martinović, Marko Vešović and Andras Kiraly
Peter Erdelyi assisted in the research.
This research was financially supported by the Investigative Journalism for Europe (IJ4EU) fund. The views of the authors do not necessarily reflect the views of the donors.
