We have received information from reliable sources that the Kosovo Parliament has set up a parliamentary commission of inquiry to investigate the Gen-I energy company energy deals, in which the Kosovo Ambassador Martin Berishaj was involved. Former President of the Management Board of the energy company in question and the presumed Prime Minister-designate, Robert Golob, denied knowing Berishaj, but we already reported that he lied at the outbreak of the affair.
Just a few days before the elections, a major financial affair broke out in Slovenia, in which the President of the Freedom Movement party (Gibanje Svoboda), Robert Golob, and the Kosovo Ambassador to Croatia, Martin Berishaj, were involved. Even though Golob denied knowing Berishaj at the last pre-election debate, the affair has already spread to Serbia as well, where they revealed another piece of the puzzle and confirmed that Golob was, in fact, not telling the truth.
More than half a million euros in cash have been transferred from Montenegro to Slovenia, and the role of the mule – meaning, the bearer of the money – was supposedly performed by the Kosovo Ambassador, Mr Berishaj, the Nova.rs media outlet recently reported. The Serbian branch of the Gen-I energy company supposedly regularly wired between 5,000 and 50,000 euros to the account of the company MR Consulting, which is registered in Montenegro, and the total amount of the transferred money is more than half a million euros. According to official documentation, the sole owner of the company MR Consulting is Martin Berishaj, and the payments were supposedly made in the years 2019 and 2020. The Montenegrin company was established only ten days before the first transfers from Gen-I Belgrade happened, which, again, is cause for suspicion. Both the Slovenian and the foreign public are obviously interested in who is the bearer of money, who was regularly withdrawing 600 thousand euros from MB Consulting, and why he did it. As already stated, the owner of the company MB Consulting, and its only employee, is Martin Berishaj, who apologised to the tax authorities in Montenegro for withdrawing the high amounts of money, saying that the reason for the cash withdrawals was in the contract concluded with his company. As the Slovenian media outlet Planet TV reported, the Ambassador supposedly withdrew about 200 thousand euros from his personal account and about 320 thousand euros in profit from the business account.
Berishaj did not respond to the questions of Slovenian and Serbian media outlets
Despite Slovenian and Serbian media’s attempts to get in touch with Berishaj, they failed to do so, as he does not want to answer questions and is always unavailable. He does not want to comment on the matter for Slovenian media, even though the Kosovo media reported that he denied any involvement in the affair in his home country. However, what has been established is that the MB Consulting registration data contains the same number and the same e-mail belonging to Mr Berishaj, which he also uses in the Kosovo Ministry of Foreign Affairs and on his Facebook profile. In addition, Planet TV found out that the Montenegrin company was established only ten days before the first money transfer came in from the Gen-I branch in Belgrade.
The affair is also causing quite a stir in Kosovo
The affair has even reached the South of the Balkans, as a money laundering scandal involving Kosovo’s Ambassador, a man close to the social-democratic party LVV Vetëvendosje, has caused quite a stir in Kosovo too. The PDK MP Xhavit Haliti was also shocked by the case, saying to the Kosovo media that if this turns out to be true, the least that Ambassador Berishaj can do is resign. The media outlet Periscope writes that persecution has also been mentioned.
Martin Berishaj is otherwise known to be a close friend of the Kosovo Prime Minister Kurti. He was one of the first to go to the LVV headquarters to celebrate after last year’s elections.
The fact that this was not just a matter of political accusations is also indicated by the recent decision of the Kosovo parliament to set up a commission of inquiry into the resale of electricity through the Gen-I company.
Peter Truden
