Tirana, March 19 (AENews) – An internal war for the control of post election situation in governing left-wing party, Socialist Party of Albania, has revived the debate about the financial collapse of the pyramidal schemes which caused major civil turmoil in 1997.

Greek media has recently published new facts about a Greek secret agent named Apostolis Vavilis, which worked in Albania in 1996, stealing several millions of dollars from Vefa and Cenaj pyramid schemes. But Greek media also wrote that an actual minister of Albania was involved in a transaction of 1.2 billion Greek drachmas, (USD 4.2 million). Greek media did not mention the name of the Albanian minister, but since ’97 the Albanian opposition has been accusing the current Minister of Finance Arben Malaj of being implicated in the fake investment company Cenaj. Mr. Malaj has been denying this charge since the earliest accusations of the democratic-led opposition.

At this time, in Tirana is believed that the reopening scandal in the Greek media was detonated by internal interests in the Socialist Party as part of pre-election war and post-election scenarios. Prime Minister Fatos Nano has declared his retreat from politics in case the Socialist Party fails to win in the general elections of this year. For the moment Malaj is recognized as a potential candidate of the Socialist Party. In the past, he has competed for the post of Prime Minister.

Another Albanian parliamentarian is being accused by the media of involvement in the scandal. Mr. Kristo Goci had accepted that he was only involved in the procedures of making a regular transaction from Albania to Greece on behalf of Cenaj. “I have taken the money from Albania and sent it to a bank in Ianina (North of Greece), with regular documents,” Mr. Goci says to the media. “I have not used this money for personal benefits”. Mr. Goci from Human Rights Union Party has recently converted from an ally of the Socialist Party to a satellite of the opposition.

Pyramidal schemes were created during ’94 and ’95. At the end of ’96, most of them declared bankruptcy resulting in 1.6 million Albanians losing their money – estimated at around USD 1 billion. Since then, no real investigation has been carried out and an abundant body of new investiture groups was added to the ranks of Albania’s new rich. Half of the actual businessman and political actors are believed to use money of the pyramidal schemes.

Posted by admin on Mar 19 2005. Filed under General News, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry