English
VMRO-DPMNE says the knot around Alta Bank scandal is being untied, along with revelations why former Finance Minister Fatmir Besimi submitted its entry into Macedonia as an item on the Government agenda. The ruling party is citing revelations that Selaudi Arifi, a businessman and relative of DUI party leader Ali Ahmeti, purchased a significant number of shares from the Stopanska Bank Bitola shortly before its sale to Alta Bank. Arifi later sold his shares to Serbian businessman Davor Macura – the owner of Alta Bank.
There is no major scandal in Macedonia in which the money trails do not lead directly to Zajas, to DUI and Ali Ahmeti. While SDS plays the role of spotter in public, information has emerged that Ali Ahmeti’s in-law has a 5-million-euro loan from Alta Bank Belgrade, VMRO-DPMNE stated.
The party points out that in 2023, at the proposal of then finance minister Fatmir Besimi, a government session considered an item on business relations with Alta Bank. Two years later, according to information published in the public, a company in which “AS Senjak” — a firm linked to Ali Ahmeti’s in-law — participates received a 5-million-euro loan precisely from Alta Bank in Belgrade.
The question now is whether Fatmir Besimi and the then SDS and DUI government knew what kind of business relations were developing around this bank. How was the loan approved? What were the guarantees? And were there impermissible connections between political and business interests?, VMRO-DPMNE asks.
They stress that it is particularly symptomatic that SDSM is silent today and is trying to distance itself from the decisions of its own officials. “You cannot open the door to business cooperation yesterday and then pretend today that you know nothing. We demand that the Public Prosecutor’s Office investigate the government decisions, the 5-million-euro loan, and all potentially related transactions. Who opened the door for Alta Bank, who benefited, and why is SDS silent today about its own officials? Citizens deserve answers”, VMRO-DPMNE asked.