Fraud-tainted Montenegro Tycoon Challenges President

A top businessmen in Montenegro accused of fraud has said he was the victim of a racket by politicians and challenged President Milo Djukanovic to a television debate to prove "who is telling the truth."

Podgorica, Montenegro, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 19th Apr, 2019 ) :A top businessmen in Montenegro accused of fraud has said he was the victim of a racket by politicians and challenged President Milo Djukanovic to a television debate to prove "who is telling the truth." In mid-January, a video clip from 2016 surfaced in which Dusko Knezevic, chairman of the Atlas Group, appeared to hand the then mayor of Podgorica an envelope containing what Knezevic later said was $100,000 to fund an election campaign.

Knezevic told the media he had been providing such secret cash to the ruling party for years.

"In order to do business in Montenegro, I had to make payments to racketeers," he said in London on Thursday.

"I live in the hope that one day things will change.

I admit wrongdoing. I paid up," he said.

His comments were aired in Podgorica during a meeting of hundreds of his supporters in front of the prosecutors' office.

He also challenged the president to a televised debate "to allow people to see who is telling the truth and who is lying." The 59-year-old, who is wanted for alleged fraud, money laundering and tax dodging, recently said he had funded the electoral campaigns of the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS).

The Montenegrin president has described Knezevic as a "fugitive who is trying to camouflage his responsibility by making noise."The DPS and Djukanovic have denied wrongdoing, insisting that all donations to the party are recorded in the party's financial records.