Die erste Verhaftung von Montenegro, eines der grössten Verbrecher in der Welt, welcher überall im Groß Drogen und Waffen Schmuggler aktiv war, auch mit den übelsten Schlächtern von Afrika. Schon wieder eine Gestalt aus Israel, welche zur Heimat Weltweiter Verbrecher von der Ukraine, Kosovo, Süd Amerika, USA, Schweiz inzwischen wurde.
Vor seiner Verhaftung hatte er in einem Geldwäsche Geschäft eine Montenegrinische Waffen Produktions Firma gekauft.
14 Apr 15
Drugs, Diamonds and Bullets: Balkan Arms Firm Linked to Criminal Investigations
Corruption, money laundering, unpaid bills, illegal arms sales to Libyan Islamists and involvement in a cocaine smuggling ring – these are just some of the allegations that have been made against controversial businessmen linked to the privatisation of one of the Balkans’ most powerful arms dealers.
Montenegro Defence Industry (MDI) was sold on March 4 to Belgrade-based CPR Impex and Israeli ATL Atlantic Technology Ltd for 680,000 euro without fanfare.
An investigation by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) has since discovered how a Belgian arms and diamond dealer Serge Muller was arrested just hours after leaving the signing ceremony in Podgorica as he attempted to cross into Albania.
Multiple sources have told BIRN how Muller plays a leading role in the Israeli firm and MDI’ privatisation.
However, ATL and its partners deny that Muller, who is suspected of cocaine trafficking and money laundering by the Belgian authorities, is officially part of the deal, although they concede that he visited MDI three times in the past year “as a friend” of ATL and attended the signing ceremony.
Petar Crnogorac, the owner of CPR Impex, faces his own legal problems after it emerged last week that the UN was investigating whether his firm Tehnoremont, a subsidiary of CPR Impex, and MDI broke an arms embargo by exporting weapons to Libyan Islamists. Crnogorac argues the deal never took place.
End of the party
A glitzy ceremony to mark the sale of MDI at the Hotel Podgorica on March 4 was ditched without explanation at the eleventh hour, with guests instead invited to attend a low-key celebration held in a drab office at the Privatisation Agency’s headquarters.
But the subdued event had a dramatic twist when Muller was arrested just hours after the meeting.
Muller, a well-known figure in Europe’s diamond capital of Antwerp, had left the Privatisation Agency’s offices with Crnogorac’s chauffeur-driven car.
The Serb was due to be dropped at the small Montenegrin airport at Tivat while Muller was to be driven across the Albanian border to Tirana to catch a plane to Israel, his base in recent years.
Muller, 59, never made the flight as Montenegrin police officers arrested him on the basis of an Interpol Red Notice issued from Brussels the previous day.
A former pillar of Belgium’s diamond trading community, Muller has previously attracted much controversy over his involvement in mining the blood-soaked diamond fields of Sierra Leone and questionable arms deals [see profile].
He is now in custody in Podgorica awaiting the outcome of an extradition hearing that could see him handed over to Belgian prosecutors to face charges of participating in a cocaine smuggling ring, having links to organised crime and money laundering.
“The arrest warrant against Muller said that he was suspected of criminal offences of ‘participation in a criminal organisation, illegal drug-trafficking and money laundering, punishable under the Criminal Code of the Kingdom of Belgium’," the Podgorica High Court told BIRN.
An Antwerp-based court official with knowledge of the case told the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) it centred on alleged cocaine shipments from South America to Antwerp and suspected money laundering.
According to the source, judge Bruno De Hous “is investigating all Muller's activities in which he
earned, or could have earned and laundered dirty money: diamonds, weapons and drugs”.
Muller is also accused of attending a meeting in Chile between members of drug cartels and a member of the Colombian terrorist organization FARC, according to the same source.
Muller, who denies all the charges, can be held for up to six months in Montenegro but his lawyer told BIRN that the evidence presented by Belgium was “poor” and he hoped his client would be released soon. An extradition hearing is expected later this week.
Muller: ‘The man behind ATL’
ATL Atlantic Technologies is a major Tel Aviv-based arms company established in 2009.
Its sole owner and CEO is Israeli Agmon Shaked, according to official Israeli documentation, but BIRN’s investigation has discovered the firm is closely tied to the powerful figure of Muller, who has made repeated journeys to MDI on the firm’s behalf in the past year, it is claimed.
...................
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/drugs-diamonds-and-bullets-balkan-arms-firm-linked-to-criminal-investigations
Multiple sources have told BIRN how Muller plays a leading role in the Israeli firm and MDI’ privatisation.
However, ATL and its partners deny that Muller, who is suspected of cocaine trafficking and money laundering by the Belgian authorities, is officially part of the deal, although they concede that he visited MDI three times in the past year “as a friend” of ATL and attended the signing ceremony.
Petar Crnogorac, the owner of CPR Impex, faces his own legal problems after it emerged last week that the UN was investigating whether his firm Tehnoremont, a subsidiary of CPR Impex, and MDI broke an arms embargo by exporting weapons to Libyan Islamists. Crnogorac argues the deal never took place.
End of the party
A glitzy ceremony to mark the sale of MDI at the Hotel Podgorica on March 4 was ditched without explanation at the eleventh hour, with guests instead invited to attend a low-key celebration held in a drab office at the Privatisation Agency’s headquarters. Who is Serge Muller?
Serge Muller made his name in the diamond business in Belgium, joining his family company S. Muller and Sons Diamonds NV, a famous Antwerp-based firm, decades ago.
For years, he dealt in diamonds across the world - from Canada to South Africa – building up considerable wealth and an international network of companies.
His best known company, Rex Mining, was incorporated in 1990 in Canada, with a licence to trade in diamonds in Belgium and shares in a mine in South Africa and Sierra Leone, a country infamous for so-called ‘blood diamonds’ - illegally mined gems traded for weapons destined for use in brutal civil wars.
“We have never made a direct connection between Muller and ‘blood diamonds’,” said Salvatore di Rosa, Belgian journalist and co-author of the book Black Diamond, which investigated the illegal trade in the gem. But Di Rosa added that it is likely Muller had, perhaps unwittingly “done business with people who were dealing with them”.
It was the deal in Sierra Leone that brought Muller to the world’s attention.
Muller’s role in the Sierra Leone murky diamond trade role was documented in The Heart of the Matter, a seminal report by NGO Partnership Africa Canada which brought the issue of blood diamonds to the fore in 2000. According to the report, Rex Mining worked on the edge of the diamond business, providing an “anarchic element” to the industry.
Muller was also involved in supplying weapons to Sierra Leone. In 1998, he sold engines, parts and ammunition for the state’s only combat helicopter, which the government used to fight the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), Sierra Leone’s rebel army, in an eleven-year war from 1991 to 2002.
He is cited in a Washington Post article published in 1999 as saying that “the arms deals were unrelated to Rex's Mining activities”.
But it is widely believed that the weapon's job was linked to concessions in the Zimmi and Tongo diamond fields.
According to Rex mining’s annual reports, which are still available on its website, the war brought serious security problems for the firm’s mining activities. Then in 2003 and 2004, the government of Sierra Leone cancelled leases claiming that Rex Mining did not comply with the conditions of the original agreement.
Muller failed to inform his Canadian shareholders of issues related to the licence and, in 2009, the Ontario Securities Commission ordered him to resign as director of Rex Mining for a 10-year period and pay a 40,000 Canadian dollar costs to the court.
He returned to Sierra Leone in 2012, as elections loomed, again supplying the government with weapons. Another of his Sierra Leone companies, Amylam, sold Chinese weapons worth $5m to the paramilitary police structure - Operational Services Division. The deal raised concerns over whether the weapons would be used in securing election victory for the president Ernest Bai Koroma and drew criticism from the UN, although it was not illegal.
Amylam was also embroiled in a court case in South Africa over the supply of allegedly poor quality weapons.
.................
Vor seiner Verhaftung hatte er in einem Geldwäsche Geschäft eine Montenegrinische Waffen Produktions Firma gekauft.
14 Apr 15
Drugs, Diamonds and Bullets: Balkan Arms Firm Linked to Criminal Investigations
The Montenegrin government sold its multimillion euro defence firm to an Israeli-Serbian consortium linked to businessmen embroiled in criminal investigations into alleged drug smuggling, money laundering and arms trafficking, BIRN can reveal.
BIRN
Belgrade, Podgorica |
| Serge Muller Photo by: Rex Mining |
Montenegro Defence Industry (MDI) was sold on March 4 to Belgrade-based CPR Impex and Israeli ATL Atlantic Technology Ltd for 680,000 euro without fanfare.
An investigation by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) has since discovered how a Belgian arms and diamond dealer Serge Muller was arrested just hours after leaving the signing ceremony in Podgorica as he attempted to cross into Albania.
Multiple sources have told BIRN how Muller plays a leading role in the Israeli firm and MDI’ privatisation.
However, ATL and its partners deny that Muller, who is suspected of cocaine trafficking and money laundering by the Belgian authorities, is officially part of the deal, although they concede that he visited MDI three times in the past year “as a friend” of ATL and attended the signing ceremony.
Petar Crnogorac, the owner of CPR Impex, faces his own legal problems after it emerged last week that the UN was investigating whether his firm Tehnoremont, a subsidiary of CPR Impex, and MDI broke an arms embargo by exporting weapons to Libyan Islamists. Crnogorac argues the deal never took place.
End of the party
A glitzy ceremony to mark the sale of MDI at the Hotel Podgorica on March 4 was ditched without explanation at the eleventh hour, with guests instead invited to attend a low-key celebration held in a drab office at the Privatisation Agency’s headquarters.
But the subdued event had a dramatic twist when Muller was arrested just hours after the meeting.
Muller, a well-known figure in Europe’s diamond capital of Antwerp, had left the Privatisation Agency’s offices with Crnogorac’s chauffeur-driven car.
The Serb was due to be dropped at the small Montenegrin airport at Tivat while Muller was to be driven across the Albanian border to Tirana to catch a plane to Israel, his base in recent years.
Muller, 59, never made the flight as Montenegrin police officers arrested him on the basis of an Interpol Red Notice issued from Brussels the previous day.
A former pillar of Belgium’s diamond trading community, Muller has previously attracted much controversy over his involvement in mining the blood-soaked diamond fields of Sierra Leone and questionable arms deals [see profile].
He is now in custody in Podgorica awaiting the outcome of an extradition hearing that could see him handed over to Belgian prosecutors to face charges of participating in a cocaine smuggling ring, having links to organised crime and money laundering.
“The arrest warrant against Muller said that he was suspected of criminal offences of ‘participation in a criminal organisation, illegal drug-trafficking and money laundering, punishable under the Criminal Code of the Kingdom of Belgium’," the Podgorica High Court told BIRN.
An Antwerp-based court official with knowledge of the case told the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) it centred on alleged cocaine shipments from South America to Antwerp and suspected money laundering.
According to the source, judge Bruno De Hous “is investigating all Muller's activities in which he
earned, or could have earned and laundered dirty money: diamonds, weapons and drugs”.
Muller is also accused of attending a meeting in Chile between members of drug cartels and a member of the Colombian terrorist organization FARC, according to the same source.
Muller, who denies all the charges, can be held for up to six months in Montenegro but his lawyer told BIRN that the evidence presented by Belgium was “poor” and he hoped his client would be released soon. An extradition hearing is expected later this week.
Muller: ‘The man behind ATL’
ATL Atlantic Technologies is a major Tel Aviv-based arms company established in 2009.
Its sole owner and CEO is Israeli Agmon Shaked, according to official Israeli documentation, but BIRN’s investigation has discovered the firm is closely tied to the powerful figure of Muller, who has made repeated journeys to MDI on the firm’s behalf in the past year, it is claimed.
...................
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/drugs-diamonds-and-bullets-balkan-arms-firm-linked-to-criminal-investigations
Multiple sources have told BIRN how Muller plays a leading role in the Israeli firm and MDI’ privatisation.
However, ATL and its partners deny that Muller, who is suspected of cocaine trafficking and money laundering by the Belgian authorities, is officially part of the deal, although they concede that he visited MDI three times in the past year “as a friend” of ATL and attended the signing ceremony.
Petar Crnogorac, the owner of CPR Impex, faces his own legal problems after it emerged last week that the UN was investigating whether his firm Tehnoremont, a subsidiary of CPR Impex, and MDI broke an arms embargo by exporting weapons to Libyan Islamists. Crnogorac argues the deal never took place.
End of the party
A glitzy ceremony to mark the sale of MDI at the Hotel Podgorica on March 4 was ditched without explanation at the eleventh hour, with guests instead invited to attend a low-key celebration held in a drab office at the Privatisation Agency’s headquarters. Who is Serge Muller?
Serge Muller made his name in the diamond business in Belgium, joining his family company S. Muller and Sons Diamonds NV, a famous Antwerp-based firm, decades ago.
For years, he dealt in diamonds across the world - from Canada to South Africa – building up considerable wealth and an international network of companies.
His best known company, Rex Mining, was incorporated in 1990 in Canada, with a licence to trade in diamonds in Belgium and shares in a mine in South Africa and Sierra Leone, a country infamous for so-called ‘blood diamonds’ - illegally mined gems traded for weapons destined for use in brutal civil wars.
“We have never made a direct connection between Muller and ‘blood diamonds’,” said Salvatore di Rosa, Belgian journalist and co-author of the book Black Diamond, which investigated the illegal trade in the gem. But Di Rosa added that it is likely Muller had, perhaps unwittingly “done business with people who were dealing with them”.
It was the deal in Sierra Leone that brought Muller to the world’s attention.
Muller’s role in the Sierra Leone murky diamond trade role was documented in The Heart of the Matter, a seminal report by NGO Partnership Africa Canada which brought the issue of blood diamonds to the fore in 2000. According to the report, Rex Mining worked on the edge of the diamond business, providing an “anarchic element” to the industry.
Muller was also involved in supplying weapons to Sierra Leone. In 1998, he sold engines, parts and ammunition for the state’s only combat helicopter, which the government used to fight the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), Sierra Leone’s rebel army, in an eleven-year war from 1991 to 2002.
He is cited in a Washington Post article published in 1999 as saying that “the arms deals were unrelated to Rex's Mining activities”.
But it is widely believed that the weapon's job was linked to concessions in the Zimmi and Tongo diamond fields.
According to Rex mining’s annual reports, which are still available on its website, the war brought serious security problems for the firm’s mining activities. Then in 2003 and 2004, the government of Sierra Leone cancelled leases claiming that Rex Mining did not comply with the conditions of the original agreement.
Muller failed to inform his Canadian shareholders of issues related to the licence and, in 2009, the Ontario Securities Commission ordered him to resign as director of Rex Mining for a 10-year period and pay a 40,000 Canadian dollar costs to the court.
He returned to Sierra Leone in 2012, as elections loomed, again supplying the government with weapons. Another of his Sierra Leone companies, Amylam, sold Chinese weapons worth $5m to the paramilitary police structure - Operational Services Division. The deal raised concerns over whether the weapons would be used in securing election victory for the president Ernest Bai Koroma and drew criticism from the UN, although it was not illegal.
Amylam was also embroiled in a court case in South Africa over the supply of allegedly poor quality weapons.
.................