Duško Knežević, fugitive and subject of INTERPOL Red Notice, cooperated in 2018 with the Iranian citizen, Anahita Nasirbeik who has been on the State Department’s black list since 2014.
According to the documentation examined by the Special Prosecutor’s Office, Duško Knežević, majority owner of the Atlas Bank and Cyprian Atlas Capital Holding Limited company, borrowed €8.500.000 from the two companies registered in Cyprus – Middleham Limited and Xetinom Enterprises Limited. The documentation doesn’t indicate the purpose of the borrowed amount of money and the origin of the money isn’t known either.
As Pobjeda finds out, Middleham and Xetinom companies granted three loans to Knežević in 2018. According to the loan agreement from 28 May, 2018, Middleham took 7836 shares of the Atlas Bank, with €1786,8 of market value. Same year, on 19 November, Xetinom company purchased 896 shares of the Atlas Bank with the same market value. On that same day, Middleham signs another loan agreement and takes 784 Atlas Bank shares. Mr Igor Martinović, lawyer, acted as agent in all of the three operations. Xetinom was founded on 11 May 2009 and it’s Middleham’s shareholder, founded on 16 December 2014.
Anahita Nasirbeik is part of the Middleham management. In one of her notices we find out that Knežević generously pledged around €17.000.000 for the two Cyprian companies, as a warranty instrument. However, Knežević failed to return that money and Middleham Limited and Xetinom Enterprises Limited are trying to get their money back. One of the persons in charge of the legal procedure of the recovery of funds is the director of legal sector, the already mentioned Mrs Anahita Nasirbeik.
And there’s where the things get complicated – for Duško Knežević in particular as, judging by the reports of foreign agencies, in December of 2014, the USA targeted the present director of the Cyprian company as a person who “helped Iran evade US sanctions”.
Director of Middleham Limited Company, 36-year old Anahita Nasirbeik, is on State Department’s black list on the suspicion of assisting the Government of Iran in illegal purchase of American dollars. The information released by the U.S. Treasury Department contained important personal data about Mrs Nasirbeik.
It was literally a public warning to all international businessmen that cooperating with persons employed in such companies should be avoided.
This detail could harm Knežević and make him stay in his “sanctuary” in London permanently.
In case it turns out that Knežević operated with persons related to the Government of Iran, British court will not tolerate Knežević’s story about political persecution – breaking of US sanctions isn’s a good reference in someone’s biography.
Knežević has had business connections with Iranian state representatives since 2012. He was one of the organizers of Iranian Delegation visit to Montenegro.
In 2014, Knežević pledged 9323 shares for the loan granted by the Pireus Bank from London. The loan agreement doesn’t contain information on whether they were ATBA or ATBN shares. The difference is quite big. Nominal value of both amounts €500. Market value of ATBA amounts €1786,8 whereas market value of ATBN amounts €389.
