The Lider news site is reporting on a major new scandal involving a Government write off of 20 million EUR in debt owed by the Russian owned TE-TO energy company.

TE-TO owns the only gas fired power and heating plant in Macedonia, located in downtown Skopje. Lider reports that the company’s owners, a shell company registered in Cyprus, filed for a fraudulent bankruptcy after engaging in money laundering of more than 150 million EUR. The bankruptcy was filed in June 2018, during a year that was reportedly record setting profitable. The company owed 20 million EUR to the state budget and 28 million EUR to the Toplifikacija heating company. The Government approved a write-off on its debt and the court approved the bankruptcy allowing TE-TO to default on its debt to Toplifikacija, which is a privately held shareholders company.

Lider reports that it will have additional installments in its investigative report on TE-TO. One angle is the fact that TE-TO was selling the electric power it was producing through EDS, an energy trading company that was owned by Deputy Prime Minister Koco Angusev.