In a press release late Thursday, Montenegro Prime Minister Milo Đukanović said an investigative project by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists about his family’s wealth and connections between his private interests and public powers was "a series of lies." He called the report -- culled from trial court records in Italy and extensive research and interviews in the Balkans -- a product of journalists, rival politicians and non-governmental agencies long allied against him.
The two-story project written by reporters in Italy and the Balkans and distributed by the Washington-based Consortium has appeared in dozens of media outlets in Montenegro and neighboring counties in the past week.
Đukanović, who turned down repeated requests to talk with reporters while they were working on the story, characterized their work as dumb. It ignored, he said, all his previously denials of wrong-doing and often successful lawsuits seeking money for what he called damage to his reputation.
The prime minister offered to share his "treasure" of supposedly hidden assets with any investigator who could find such a thing. The articles said he and close relatives had accumulated millions of Euros by taking advantage of his public position to enhance his private holdings.
"Even though I have grown tired of repeating it," Đukanović said "for the sake of the public who is the intended audience of these tall tales, I declare one more time: until the end of 2006 my only pursuit was related to the offices I had taken and which are precisely regulated by government acts in terms of salary."
"From the end of 2006 until the beginning of 2008 I openly and legally ran a private business, successful to be sure, and I have paid state taxes."
"From March 2008 onwards I assumed office again. My former businesses have been stopped…"
In one story, consortium reporters examined records from an Italian prosecutor’s investigation into charges he smuggled cigarettes and pocketed million. The prime minister has long insisted any money he made during the venture went into public coffers.
The second story focused on Đukanović’s use of his position for his and his family’s personal gain. For example, in December, Đukanović's administration announced that Montenegro would bail out First Bank (Prva banka), one of the country’s largest financial institutions and a major investor in the Montenegrin boom.
First Bank is majority owned by Đukanović, two siblings, and a close friend.
