Tirana Prosecutor’s Office has issued a summons for DP leader Lulzim Basha as part of an investigation into lobbying funds in the United States.
The summons was signed by prosecutors Ervin Karanxha, Gjergji Tako and Kole Hysenaj.
Former Secretary General and former MP Arben Ristani and Ilir Dervishi, an economist in the DP, were also summoned to the Prosecutor’s Office.
According to the prosecutors’ letter, Basha, Ristani and Dervishi are due to appear in the Prosecution on June 17 at 9:30 am.
The issue of lobbying payments made by the DP opened in November 2017, when the US lobbying firm ‘Muzin Capitol Partners’ supplemented with additional information its statutory statements required by the Department of Justice.
According to statements by ‘Muzin’ company, she received three payments, in the amount of $ 675,000, for her work in favor of the Democratic Party in 2017: the first payment is dated March 24, 2017 and made by the firm ‘Biniatta Trade’ LP ”, worth $ 150,000, the other two payments were made by the Democratic Party, one on March 27, for $ 25,000, and the other on June 9, for $ 500,000.
Of these statements by the firm Muzin, only $ 25,000 was received by the DP chairman, Lulzim Basha, who was paid by the DP. The other two remained unclear.
The Democratic Party has not admitted any affiliation with the ‘Biniatta Trade LP’ firm, which turns out to be registered in Edinburgh, Scotland and owns a chain of companies registered in Belize – a Central American state known as a fiscal paradise.
According to “Mother Jones” magazine, “Biniatta Trade LP” is a partnership created by two companies: Asverro Corp and Liminez Commerce, for which “there is no public record of any trading activity”. Behind these two companies, according to “Mother Jones”, are two other UK registered companies, “Babyonica” and “KF Global Management”, whose shares are 75 percent owned by two Russian nationals, Evgeny Sheremetyev and Konstantin Ferulev.
