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Shkruar nga Pamfleti
The former administrator of Bankers, Leonidha Çobo, has denied the prosecution's charges against him. Although he has not had a role in this company for 10 years, the prosecution arrested him.
In the defense provided exclusively by Report TV journalist Marsela Topi, it is learned that Maksim Sota, Çobo's lawyer, stated in court that he performed his duties correctly from 2010-2015. The lawyer stated that the period investigated by the Fier Prosecutor's Office refers to 2018 and onwards, when Çobo no longer held any position in the company, while the reports on which the charges were filed date back to 2018.
In his position, Çobo emphasizes that Bankers' contractual relationship with the Albanian state is regulated by the 2004 Hydrocarbons Agreement. The defense emphasized that any claims regarding the investments made by Bankers for the period 2010-2015, when Cobo was the administrator, have been audited and verified by AKBN and the Tax Directorate, for which there are also several court decisions and the Court of Arbitration in Paris, confirming the regularity of the activity for this period.
His defense emphasizes that Çobo was investigated in 2020-2021 by the Fier Prosecutor's Office for the actions of the Bankers company's administration, a proceeding registered on the basis of Bankers' own criminal charges, after the change of ownership in 2018, for abuse of administrator powers, theft by abuse of office, and corruption in the private sector. The lawyer said that this investigation was dismissed by the Fier Court at the request of the prosecutor's office itself and was left in force by all levels of the judiciary, including the Supreme Court.
Leonidha Çoba's full defense and lawyer Maksim Sota's statement:
" Mr. Leonidha Çobo was the administrator of Bankers for the period 2010-2015 and performed his duties in the most correct manner possible. The time period investigated by the prosecution and any allegations are based on the audit report of 2018 and onwards. Bankers' relationship with the Albanian state, the company Albpetrol sh.a, is regulated by the Hydrocarbon Agreements of 2004, which stipulate Bankers' obligation to make investments in the development of the activity.
Any claims regarding the concealment of income or investments made by Bankers for the period 2010-2015, when Mr. Çobo was an administrator, have been audited and verified by AKBN and the Tax Directorate, for which there are also several court decisions and the Court of Arbitration in Paris, confirming the regularity of the activity for this period.
We emphasize that referring to Article 25 of the License Agreement which provides for the manner in which the dispute between the parties is resolved (experts and/or arbitration tribunal), and the decision is binding on the parties. For this situation, the ICC Arbitration Court itself, with an official letter as a recognized act of the ICC regulation, has confirmed the fact that the decision is binding and final for the parties, with no other means of appeal. Although there is such a decision-making, this was not taken into account by the prosecution, conducting a weak and peripheral investigation without delving into the analysis of the financial and judicial situations of the company that show another legal and financial situation.
This position of the arbitration court cannot be questioned by any Albanian judicial body, civil, administrative or even criminal, since arbitration issues are not subject to discussion by the national civil procedural law, nor are they part of Albanian jurisdiction, as long as the parties, with free will, when concluding the agreement, establish a special court to resolve their issues in case of disputes. Otherwise, the legal order of international law is overturned, to which Albania adheres, rendering the mandatory norms ineffective and consequently the crime of illegality.
Furthermore, being a company listed until 2016 on the Toronto and London Stock Exchanges, and implementing the best corporate governance rules for transparency towards shareholders, it has been audited by an international company, in function of economic performance, supervised by the Board of Directors.
Likewise, Mr. Çobo was investigated in 2020-2021 by the Fier Prosecutor's Office for the actions of the administration of the Bankers company, a proceeding registered on the basis of Bankers' own criminal complaint, after the change of ownership in 2016, for abuse of administrator powers, theft by abuse of office, corruption in the private sector, etc., requesting the termination of the proceeding at the conclusion of the investigation.
The prosecution's request was accepted by the Fier Court of First Instance and upheld by the Court of Appeal and the Criminal College of the High Court. This criminal proceeding bears no. 966/2020 and is in the prosecution's archive, but it was not mentioned at any point in this investigation.
The prosecution has alleged that Bankers intentionally issued balance sheets of its activity with losses, an untrue fact, at least for the period 2010-2015, as Bankers' financial statements result in accounting profit and considerable monetary income, which have been reinvested entirely in order to develop the activity and increase the value of Bankers' assets and performance.
So, we are dealing with two different results, the company's accounting profit and fiscal profit, which is calculated by special laws that regulate this activity and hydrocarbon agreements, which the prosecution deliberately confuses. The prosecution has not taken into account nor analyzed what the value of the company's assets was in 2004 and what the value of the current assets is, after the investments made.
Over the years, Bankers has invested several billion euros in the Albanian economy, directly contributing around 750 million euros in rent paid, hundreds of millions of euros in taxes and levies paid by subcontracted company services, tens of millions of euros in local taxes and investments in local communities, as well as thousands of employed people.
Mr. Çobo has been out of Bankers' administration for over 10 years and his placement in the extreme measure of pre-trial detention for unfounded or previously investigated claims, without ever being summoned and questioned by the prosecution, is not only legally unfounded, but in clear violation of due process.
As evidenced above, the investigation was conducted in violation of the provisions and procedural guarantees required by the Code of Criminal Procedure, as it was assessed de plano in a very short time, violating the criminal procedural guarantees for persons placed under security measures. This activity is not supported by the Code of Criminal Procedure and is a dangerous precedent that only speaks of a pronounced and unprofessional haste on the part of the prosecution.
In addition, the prosecution has not taken into account or verified many judicial decisions, left in force until the High Court, where the Bankers company has won over 10 lawsuits against the tax administration for the value of tax obligations unfairly charged to us. It is precisely these tax obligations that have currently become part of the value of the tax obligation that the prosecution has issued as the damage of the criminal offense caused by the Bankers company, while clearly these obligations cannot exist for us.
"This entire way of proceeding by the prosecution clearly creates an attempt to burden its leaders and our society with non-existent tax obligations that are now a matter of judgment ."
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