Balkan money-laundering is booming
The property market makes a good place to hide ill-gotten gains
ON MAY 12TH prosecutors in North Macedonia charged Nikola Gruevski, the country’s former prime minister, with money-laundering. It is alleged that he funnelled cash donated to his party through Belize to buy property illegally and conceal its ownership. He says the case is politically motivated. Meanwhile in Jahorina, a popular Bosnian ski resort, gangsters, plus the officials they have corrupted, have been investing in hotels. All kinds of corruption are rife. An expatriate, who has half-built a block of flats near his home in Vlora in south Albania, rails that building has stalled because he refuses to pay bribes to secure the necessary permits.
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Hide and seek”
Europe May 22nd 2021
- Italy’s populist right looks menacing
- Germany is apologising for crimes a century ago in Namibia
- Balkan money-laundering is booming
- Poland’s government eases coalition tensions with a spending splurge
- NATO increasingly sees its soldiers’ phones as a liability
- How Greece became Europe’s unlikely model student
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