Ten months ago, "Kronen Zeitung", the largest Austrian media, published an article where, according to an Albanian witness who took refuge in Austria, Ilir Meta was described as fundamentally corrupt.
The article, among other things, cited documents obtained by the US Department of Justice about Ilir Meta's and Monika Kryemadhi's lobbying in Washington over the years.
The newspaper also referred to a payment of 700,000 dollars made in 2016 and early 2017 through the company Dorelita Limited, registered in Cyprus.
According to the contract submitted to the Department of Justice, the goal was to protect the interests of the people and clients of the Cypriot company, which was represented by lawyer Iraklis Fidetzis, who is suspected of knowing Vangjel Tavos, the former deputy of the LSI in the district of Gjirokastra.
The documents show that about 700 thousand dollars were paid to the company McKeon Group. 90,000 dollars were paid by lawyer Iraklis Fidetzis, while another 600,000 dollars were paid again by Fidetzis but through the company "Dorelita Limited".
The unanswered question in the Austrian media article is the source of this money. Suspicions were raised on two tracks, either they are corruption money, or funding from third countries as part of their campaign for influence in the Balkans.
The answer seems to be found in the article of EuReporter, the media founded in 2001 based in Brussels.
In an article on Wednesday, EuReporter brought documents obtained by US intelligence that show monetary transactions of Monika Kryemadhi with shell companies registered in tax havens. The payments were received by the offshore company "Holdem Holdings", which is controlled by Russian oil oligarchs Alexander Smizukov and Alexander Kaplan.
Monika Kryemadhi is suspected of being a shareholder in the offshore company controlled by the Russians, as the payment mandate states that the sum of 13,500 euros was received as a dividend for the shareholder.
Kryemadhi also made a payment to an offshore company, Vradus Holdings, which was controlled by Vitaly Savvin, a Russian oil oligarch who, as revealed by Forbes, was one of Putin's biggest donors.
EuReporters' investigation raises suspicions that the two companies in question registered in tax havens have no activity, but serve as a cover in this case to distribute Russian money to corrupt politicians in Eastern Europe as part of Moscow's strategy to increase influence in these countries./Tch