In December 2004, Italian police arrested three people with 3.5 kilograms of cocaine imported from the Netherlands in the small town of Melegnano, around 16 kilometres south-east of Milan. According to Italian prosecutors, the group had a fourth associate named Arben Isufaj, but he escaped arrest.<\/p>\n
At almost the same time in Albania, a construction company called “Isufaj \u2013 2004” was set up with its headquarters in the Sheq i Madh neighbourhood of Fier, and it operated unhindered for more than a decade.<\/p>\n
“Isufaj-2004” built three apartment blocks in Fier and expanded its construction business to Tirana before it was discovered that its ownership was linked to Arben Isufaj \u2014 a subject of the “Antimafia” law.<\/p>\n
Isufaj, 56, also known as Ben Qimja, was convicted by Italian justice in 2014 for trafficking cocaine from the Netherlands to Italy and other drug-trafficking episodes between 2004 and 2005. Isufaj escaped extradition to Italy thanks to a controversial decision by the Fier Court, but his properties in his country of origin became the object of asset investigations.<\/p>\n
In May 2021, the Special Prosecution Office (SPAK) opened asset proceedings against him, seizing a series of suspect assets, including the construction company “Isufaj-2004”. But just two years later, the seizure measure was lifted on the claim that Isufaj had financed his construction business with prepayments from his clients.<\/p>\n
The construction sector in Albania is particularly exposed to the flow of criminal money penetrating the country’s poor economy. According to the General Directorate for the Prevention of Money Laundering, construction and the real-estate market remain the dominant instruments through which crime money is injected into the economy.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, the punishment of money laundering through construction remains at minimal levels.<\/p>\n
After a 2-year investigation into the source of the seized assets of Arben Isufaj and his family circle, defence lawyers requested the lifting of the seizure measures on the grounds that the assets had been created before the Italian justice ruling or had been financed from lawful sources.<\/p>\n
These claims were validated by the Special Prosecution Office and the Special Court in the case of the company “Isufaj-2004”, on the basis of an expert report which showed that the construction business had not been financed by the partner but by prepayments from apartment buyers.<\/p>\n
The business empire<\/strong><\/p>\n Arben Isufaj has a criminal past in Italy, having been convicted by the Turin Court of trafficking narcotics. Wanted by Interpol since 2010, Isufaj was arrested for extradition purposes in March 2014, but the request from the Italian authorities was rejected by a much-debated ruling of the Fier Court.<\/p>\n Since February of this year, Isufaj has again been on the run, accused of having threatened a judge in the city of Fier.<\/p>\n Court documents show that Isufaj first faced an asset investigation in the mid-2010s by the Fier Prosecutor’s Office and in 2021 by the Special Prosecution Office Against Corruption and Organised Crime.<\/p>\n The latter proceeding was based on a 2017 referral from the Fier Police Directorate, which raised suspicions that Arben Isufaj had managed to build a business empire in the names of his family members and his social circle.<\/p>\n According to that referral, Arben Isufaj had carried out numerous transactions of considerable value with his in-law, Agim \u00c7ako, and the circle of his relatives, which were suspected of stemming from unlawful activities.<\/p>\n In addition to these transactions, the Fier Police had identified numerous investments in real estate and movable property, as well as a network of commercial companies in the names of these people, operating mainly in construction and in the fuel sector.<\/p>\n During the asset investigation into the circle of people linked to Isufaj, prosecutors Ened Naku\u00e7i and Edvin Kondili identified a long list of properties, including three apartment blocks built by the company Isufaj-2004 in Fier, two hotels along the Vlora\u2013Orikum road, considerable areas of land and plots, and around 200 stalls rented out at the Fier ambulant market, which was managed by \u00c7ako.<\/p>\n The investigation also identified the Isufaj-2004 construction company registered in the ownership of Ben Qimja’s uncle, Ymer Isufaj, as well as the company “Mateo Konstruksion” with activity in Tirana, owned by \u00c7ako.<\/p>\n According to court documents, this company had won a tender at Albpetrol in 2010 to purchase 60,000 tons of fuel for a payment of 7 million euros. This payment had been deposited by Isufaj and his social associates.<\/p>\n Despite the long list of identified businesses and companies, the prosecution went to court with a minimal seizure request, based on a forensic accounting report which, according to the prosecutors, showed that these assets were not justified by lawful sources.<\/p>\n The court ordered the seizure of a poultry farm registered in the name of the company “Isufaj 2001”; 33% of the shares of the company Akili Alb sh.p.k.; a 3,289 m\u00b2 plot in Fier; the Isufaj 2004 construction company; three plots of land owned by Agim \u00c7ako; and six vehicles.<\/p>\n The assets above were seized in 2021, but during the confiscation process, the Isufaj-2004 company was returned to its owner.<\/p>\n The lifting of the seizure<\/strong><\/p>\n The Special Court ruling of 30 January 2023 by Judge Erion Bani notes that, after the asset seizure based on the “Antimafia” law, the connected persons appealed, but their request was not granted.<\/p>\n In January 2022, Isufaj, through his lawyers, submitted a memo to SPAK asking for the admission of a 2018 forensic accounting report carried out as part of a money-laundering criminal case opened by the Fier Prosecutor’s Office in 2012.<\/p>\n This expert report cites, among other things, that the company “ISUFAJ-2004”, with partner Ymer Isufaj, had been financed entirely by clients who reserved apartments. Likewise, it is claimed that the financing of the company by these advance buyers up to 2007 amounted to 8.6 million euros.<\/p>\n During the proceedings, the connected persons asked for a second expert report to calculate the income earned in relation to expenses. The lawyers also filed apartment sale-purchase contracts at court, which were accepted as evidence in the framework of a full and comprehensive investigation.<\/p>\n Given that during the proceedings two opposing expert reports were noted \u2014 one from the prosecution and the other from the lawyers \u2014 Judge Bani, through an interim ruling, ordered a new forensic accounting report by a team of experts.<\/p>\n The court considered that the aim of carrying out this new expert report was to establish whether the company “ISUFAJ-2004” sh.p.k., from the moment of its founding to the moment the seizure request was filed, had or did not have lawful sources for the creation of the assets in its name.<\/p>\n In the expert report carried out during the latest hearing, the experts concluded that the company had been financed by the apartment buyers in 2005 to a total amount of 105 million lek.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the experts expressed reservations as to whether the receipts promised in the notarial contracts had actually been received, since the cash payment vouchers were missing, but the lawyers, at the court’s request, submitted all the cash receipt records.<\/p>\n According to the court, the conclusion of the expert report shows that the financing of the company “ISUFAJ-2004” sh.p.k. was not carried out from the partner’s resources, but from the payments made by the buyers.<\/p>\n On the basis of these facts, SPAK requested in its closing arguments that the seizure of the company “ISUFAJ-2004” sh.p.k. be lifted. According to the court ruling, the prosecutors stood by the request to confiscate the other assets.<\/p>\n In its conclusion, the court found the request to lift the seizure of the construction company “ISUFAJ-2004” justified.<\/p>\n “The court considers that, on the basis of the evidence administered during the trial, viewed in unity with the other evidence, it is not proven that this company at its beginnings was financed by the partner. So, it is not proven to have been financed from unlawful sources,” Judge Erion Bani reasons.<\/p>\n Likewise, Judge Bani considered that a real-estate property classified as “arable” with a surface of 5,600 m\u00b2 in the Sheq i Madh neighbourhood in Fier had been acquired by Agim \u00c7ako on the basis of Law 7501, removing it from the confiscation list as well.<\/p>\n In conclusion, the court decided to partially accept the prosecution’s request, confiscating only 7 of the 12 movable and immovable properties owned by Isufaj and the persons linked to him.<\/p>\n The ruling became final on 13 April 2023, since it was not appealed by either the SPAK prosecutors or the lawyers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In December 2004, Italian police arrested three people with 3.5 kilograms of cocaine imported from the Netherlands in the small town of Melegnano, around 16 kilometres south-east of Milan. According to Italian prosecutors, the group had a fourth associate named Arben Isufaj, but he escaped arrest. At almost the same time in Albania, a construction […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":637,"featured_media":114945,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"The asset proceedings against Arben Isufaj, convicted in Italy of drug trafficking, exposed his construction-sector interests in Fier and Tirana, but the company escaped confiscation on the argument that the investments were covered by buyer prepayments.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":"","tve_updated_post":"","tve_custom_css":"","tve_user_custom_css":"","tve_globals":{},"tcb2_ready":0,"tcb_editor_enabled":0,"tve_landing_page":"","_tve_header":"","_tve_footer":""},"categories":[23,26,4],"tags":[13826,1098,1099,13825,1825,1822,7672,6420,13828,13829,13827],"coauthors":[773],"class_list":["post-117720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artikull-kryesor","category-artikull-kryesor-investigime","category-investigime","tag-agim-cako","tag-arben-isufaj","tag-ben-qimja","tag-biznesi-i-ndertimit","tag-edvin-kondili","tag-ened-nakuci","tag-erion-bani","tag-hetimi-pasuror","tag-isufaj-2004","tag-mateo-konstruksion","tag-ymer-isufaj"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reporter.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reporter.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reporter.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reporter.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/637"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reporter.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.reporter.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reporter.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reporter.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reporter.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reporter.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117720"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reporter.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=117720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}