Montenegrin lawmaker brings suit over bankrupt aluminium plant

Branko Radulovic, Vice President of the Parliament of Montenegro, has filed a lawsuit against 32 individuals, including Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska and Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, over bankruptcy of the Aluminum Plant Podgorica (KAP), RIA Novosti reported on Tuesday.

KAP once was the country’s largest company and leading exporter. Deripaska’s En+ bought a controlling stake in the plant in 2005. In 2013, the Montenegrin government initiated bankruptcy proceedings after KAP accumulated a debt of over 350 million euros and sent a bankruptcy receiver to the plant.

Podgorica started proceedings to sell off KAP after it was declared bankrupt to Uniprom, which is owned by businessman Veselin Pejovic. Deripaska-controlled Central European Aluminum Company (CEAC) continues to insist the deal is illegal. A Cyprus court on July 7 issued an injunction on operations involving all KAP assets.

The list of persons whom Radulovic is suing includes former and current politicians, KAP directors, university professors, businesspeople, prosecutors and judges who were allegedly involved in abuses at the plant between 1990 and to this day.

Radulovic estimates direct damages from their actions at EUR 2 billion and says that indirect damages are even larger. He claims that all the individuals he is suing were involved in a criminal collusion and that Prime Minister Djukanovic was the mastermind behind the criminal actions.

Other individuals on the list are President Filip Vujanovic, ex-Prime Minister Igor Luksic, ex-Finance Minister Miroslav Ivanisevic, ex-Economics Minister Vojin Djukanovic, ex-Deputy Chair of the Privatization Council Veselin Vukotic, Economics Minister, former Supreme Prosecutors Vesna Medenica and Ranka Carapic, and current President of the Commercial Court Blazo Jovanic.

Radulovic is also suing Viacheslav Krylov, former chairman of KAP’s board of directors, and CEAC, KAP’s biggest shareholder and managing company, and its parent company, En+ Group.