Within checks of Democratic Front’s (DF) financial operations, the Special State Prosecutor’s Office (SDT) has been intensively examining DF’s contracts with all Montenegrin media related to the election campaign in 2016, Dnevne Novine reports.
According DN’s sources, SDT has asked the Montenegrin media to submit all the contracts with DF, which is suspected of the unlawful conduct.
It is suspected that there are contracts with certain media outlets in which there is no indication of the sum to be paid, which is unrecognized in the financial operations. Thus it turns out that the outlets signed cooperation contracts, but it was not known how much the services cost and how long the cooperation lasted.
In addition to the political advertising contracts that investigators are focused on, SDT is checking the entire DF’s election campaign, on suspicion that the political alliance was financed from abroad through suspicious money transactions and donations that could ultimately mean money laundering.
The anti-corruption agency established that DF did not comply with the legal obligation regarding the opening of a separate account for the election campaign, appointing a person responsible of money spending and informing the prosecutor’s office thereof.
SDT suspects DF of concluding fictitious contracts on media services, on the basis of which large sums of money (€10,000-€20,000) were paid without any details on the service provided.
Investigators are particularly checking whether certain journalists from the so-called independent media signed such consulting contracts and later received money based on them.
In addition, it is possible that the SDT’s investigation will not end on 2016 election campaign, but that all financial operations of the alliance since 2012 will be checked.
During last year’s election campaign, advertising services to DF were provided by Vijesti newspaper, TV and web portal.
Media earlier reported that the Vijesti group had blocked DF’s account due to €165,849 debt for advertising services.
In the meantime, Dan daily newspaper has blocked DF’s bank account as well, trying to collect the political marketing debts.
