VIDEO / Ahmetaj: $14 Billion Stolen by Rama and His Ministers. National Security in the Hands of Organized Crime

Former Deputy Prime Minister Arben Ahmetaj, speaking in an interview on Çim Peka LIVE on SYRI TV, accused Prime Minister Edi Rama and his ministers of stealing $14 billion from the state budget. He claimed that Altin Dumani has done nothing to investigate these alleged thefts.

Ahmetaj also stressed that, with Edi Rama’s consent, national security has ended up in the hands of organized crime.

Çim Peka: All your denunciations and evidence are now cases before SPAK.

Arben Ahmetaj: This has nothing to do with my denunciations. Napoleon used to say that when a man says, “I told him, I told him,” he is not a man. This is not about my complaints; it is about the reality of Albania and what I am referring to, which has been put on display. In other words, the two major cases, just the tip of the iceberg, are only the beginning.

Both AKSHI and the other case have effectively fallen into their laps. They are almost accidental. The Balluku cases, for example, are the consequence of that unfortunate former director who fell into his own trap and is now in prison, where he had recorded everything. There are shocking things, no doubt about it. And then the head of the organization comes out and says, “Yes, I intervened here, I intervened for Ram Geci, pardon me, Ram Geci, I intervened for this one, I intervened for that one.” How do you find the right to intervene for someone like that?

Yes, this one feeds some people. But why shouldn’t another feed other people? Who are you? Who are you to manage competition and decide where budget money goes? What are you? This is not your private household budget. There you may have that right. Hereyou do not, here there is competition. Why doesn’t Altin Dumani indict him? Why doesn’t he? He doesn’t, because he cannot indict his own political boss. Me, he could have indicted, because the political boss gave the order.

Take the ecopark, for example. I will tell Albanians again. Imagine if my daughter had designed the ecopark project and the incinerators had paid for it. Just imagine. Or Mr. Dumani, can you imagine that for a moment? How the spectrum suddenly shifts from one side to the other? If my child had done it, even Kelis, who is five years old, would have gone to prison with me, with my sisters, and with my mother.

But when it is done by the head of the organization, by the head’s child or a family member, we close both eyes, shut both ears, and put a gag over our mouths. We do not speak, we do not see, we do not hear. That is justice. What has changed in justice? SPAK has not changed, it is the same old SPAK. What has changed is the approach beyond Albania. The approach in democratic capitals toward the criminal-economic foundation of the head of the organization has changed.

The approach beyond Albania has changed toward a justice system of appearances and statistics. My life is not a statistic. For Albanians it may be. For Altin Dumani it may be. But one day, those who invested in and sponsored the justice reform from outside Albania will not be able to accept this phenomenon, a phenomenon in which the state is privatized, where every tender, every single tender, is rigged. I have said it before: I have never awarded a tender in my life. I have said that every tender is directed and predetermined.

He comes out and openly says, “I intervened for Ram Geci because he feeds people.” Let Ram Geci get work like everyone else, legitimately. He has worked his whole life; let him compete fairly. Not for the prime minister to step in and say, “Give it to this one, give it to that one.” Have you heard the language being used? Even at the height of my anger over the destruction of the state, I never used such language. Sometimes men slip, but this is a problem of language.

Çim Peka: Excuse me, one second, their language.

Arben Ahmetaj: So we return to the point. We are talking about the transformation of the state into a private state, based on drug money and corruption, which is then reinvested in the process of renewing power. In political vocabulary there is a broad term for this: the prostitution of power. This is the prostitution of power. The state has become the foundation of a narco-state. National security institutions are linked to organized crime. It will take 60 years to clean Albania. A miserable Albania, 60 years to cleanse it of organized crime.

Çim Peka: So these things have happened this year in Albania, according to you?

Arben Ahmetaj: Yes. And the exposure of all these scandals. What has SPAK done? Do you know how much damage is in Altin Dumani’s hands? Do you know how much damage has been done to the state budget? $13 billion from these affairs. Thirteen billion. Has any of that money been returned to the state budget? Or have they seized a few square meters of property I built back in 2006?

Çim Peka: Is the damage to the Albanian economy $14 billion?

Arben Ahmetaj: That’s the figure, add them up: one, two, three, four. Fourteen billion. Fourteen billion dollars. A question for Albanians: with the arrival of Altin Dumani, did corruption decrease or increase? Why was the Tirana incinerator case not pursued? Why wasn’t that case taken up? Where are the estimated $250 million in damages? Why wasn’t the tunnel case investigated?

Why was the tunnel left until the final month? Why is it not investigated further? Why is the money not followed? The money should be traced at AKSHI, in road projects, and among subcontractors. These are schemes. I know this, and I receive information every day. Why wasn’t it pursued? What is the reason Altin Dumani did not go after the tunnel case? What is the reason?

Why didn’t he go after AKSHI? What is the reason? Why did he forcibly take my case file? What had he promised to whom? Was he going to become head of SPAK on my heart and my liver? Fine, you became it. What is the result? In the end, every man thinks about his legacy, not just his family legacy, but what he leaves behind. What has he left behind? Altin Dumani has left behind $14 billion in damage.

Çim Peka: And how much has he recovered?

Arben Ahmetaj: Zero. He comes out and says, “Well, no denunciations were brought to me by the tax authorities or anti–money laundering.” Honestly, when I hear this, I ask myself: what business is it of yours to wait for tax authorities, customs, or money-laundering units? You have indications, indications. You also have the media, just as you used pseudo-media against me. Take the process, the tender, the structure, the concession, the money laundering, from A to Z. Take the criminal organization from start to finish. But you didn’t. Has SPAK changed? No. What has changed is the approach beyond Albania, in European capitals.

The approach has changed among those who inspired and sponsored the justice reform, who are increasingly convinced that it is far from what it should be. The first step is independence from the head of the organization. That is fundamental. If we continue, there are many elements showing we are far from a root-and-branch investigation, very far. Follow the money. Everywhere in the world, investigators follow the money: where it went, what it did. And as the approach of democratic capitals has changed, you can see it for the first time in Albanian media, shamefully so, anti-Trump propaganda. For the first time. Why? Do we have different objectives and principles from the President of the United States, now or before? No. On the contrary, we align 99.9999 percent. Any difference is a leaf, not the trunk or branches. Where does this come from? From the head of the organization. Why? Because the overall approach has changed.

Let me state a fact, and even make a remark, since he enjoys theater, he says there has been “spectacular work” at AKSHI, inviting people to come see how nice it is. There was an end-of-year dinner with diplomats. Yes. And at the main table, of course, a significant number of strategic allies were absent. There were Gulf countries present, and the joker stands up and mocks those who injected democratic lifeblood into Albania, saying he raises a toast to that table, out of respect, of course, because only they help us without asking anything in return. Meanwhile, what has Britain asked of you? What has the United States asked of you? What has the European Commission asked of you? What? They asked you not to be a narcotrafficker, to allow parliament to function freely, not to turn it into a rag, as has been done, turning it into something resembling Congo’s parliament decades ago. They asked you to clean up the police, to stop the practices you engage in, to fight cartels, to support the economy, not to continuously distort it to the point of crippling Albania’s economic DNA and erasing the middle class. What did they ask? They asked that the situation Albania faces today should not exist, that Albania be cleaned up.

A question for Albanians: did Albania have drug cartels 15 years ago? Of course there were groups here and there. There have always been. But today they are richer, stronger, more structured, more violent, internationalized, and empowered. Organized crime in Albania has all of these traits now, because it has people at the top of the police, people in government, people in parliament. SPAK closes one eye, despite international pressure. Do you see how he mocks this? And then he says the “idiots in Washington” solve problems with bombs. Seriously, this borders on insanity. Is this the prime minister’s discourse?

Now I have a duty to return to some of the accusations and then move on to the denunciations. And what are these? This is information I share with Albanians, and any interested citizen can investigate further. Investigate. Investigate.

I will return to the Tirana incinerator. A simple question: have the subcontractor companies been investigated today? Because we must follow the money, correct? In relation to costs, first. Second, what about the unconstitutionality of the soil tax? Who is responsible? Third, the €29 payment has two components. One is incineration, which is missing. Incineration does not exist. So why do Albanians pay €29? Where does it go? Mr. Altin, where does it go? Who receives it? Nearly €15, who gets it? Which subcontractors are paid as money disappears like water into sand? I have said it: follow the money.

You know these projects were built on the incinerator logic. They even went around embassies. Look, this was the inspiration. That’s not true. But even if I had been the inspiration, this is the implementation. Even if. Elbasan did it itself, Fier did it itself, Tirana did it itself, and I opposed it. I have documents, discussions. Let them deny it. Let them deny it, just come out with jokes, as is his habit, hurling insults up and down. Fine. The Tirana incinerator has not been completed. Altin Dumani tried to pin it on me, but it doesn’t stick, I didn’t sign anything.