FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
After repeated investigations and endless maneuvers around "Bankers Petroleum", the same old scheme emerges: invisible owners, missing billions, and a state that remains silent, while the national wealth ultimately slips into the hands of offshore shell companies...
The ongoing investigations into the company "Bankers Petroleum", including the Albanian administrator, managers and employees, are not a new story. The file was opened in 2022, immediately after the 2021 elections, with almost the same accusation: fiscal fraud and failure to fulfill tax obligations. Then Leonidha Çobo, at the time CEO of the company, was put under investigation, who is again in the dock today. As usually happens with major issues affecting dark interests, this one also entered the Greek calendars and was buried in silence.
The real game took place behind the scenes, because we are not only dealing with fiscal abuses, but with direct blows and bargains against the real owners of the Patos-Marinza oil wells, who are hiding behind the offshore shells of the Cayman Islands. This time too, the same maneuver and the same pressure are taking place: some of the old parties want to be removed from the game, while new parties are trying to enter to benefit from what others have enjoyed to date. The game being played in the name of the law is in fact a fight for control of an economic giant, which according to documents submitted to the court has exported approximately 6 billion euros of hydrocarbons, an amount that corresponds to a full annual budget of the Albanian state.
The biggest problem with the “Bankers” affair does not lie in the unpaid tax bill or the usual tricks with the balance sheets. Those are undoubtedly important criminal offenses, but they are not the essence. The heart of this affair is the mystery surrounding the true ownership of the oil wells and the fate of the billions of euros that have been extracted from the Albanian subsoil, without leaving any trace in the public budget. If “Pandora’s box” is opened, an earthquake will erupt that will not spare any political dome, any segment of the state administration, and any part of the capital caste built on plunder. This knot can only be untied as Alexander the Great once untied it: by cutting it. With a court decision supported by the government and ratified by the Parliament, the Albanian state must immediately take possession of the Patos-Marinza wells and return them to public ownership. This would be the most honest form of solution: first the return of national wealth and then the tracing of the money, which is traceable through international financial investigation channels. Any other alternative is simply a farce, a game of blackmail and under-the-table deals to divide the loot.
The “Bankers” case is not an exception. It is the rule. The same scheme has happened with every natural wealth and every industrial asset in the country: demolition, transfer to dark hands, use as a means for construction, sale and then silence. All of Albania’s natural reserves are in the hands of invisible shells, and so are the industrial assets that were left to the country as a production heritage; they have been demolished, burned or collapsed to become construction sites. The case of “Birra Tirana” is identical to that of “Bankers”: in the center of the capital is one of the last industrial assets, under investigation for document forgery and colossal debts to the state, but no one is demanding bankruptcy and the return of public property. Simply because the plan is to turn it into another tower.
In the 1990s, many state assets were given for a pittance to a small group of people, who later became politicians, media owners, lobbyists and millionaires. Everyone knew that they were just intermediaries, those who held the signature, while behind them stood the ones who gave the orders. Today, those characters have either been eliminated from the game or have become part of a larger mechanism that continues to function undisturbed. If a single parliamentary decision, with a sovereign character, were to declare the return of public property for all the assets stolen in 34 years, the real owners would soon come to light. Those who have so far received billions and continue to demand more.
Any other alternative, be it selective investigations, small arrests, or smiling media confrontations, are mere bargaining chips. They are maneuvers to get a share of the fine, to buy silence, or to change players, without touching the game. And that is exactly what is happening today with Bankers. Nothing has changed, just the names that bear the firms. And until the essence changes, every investigation is a farce./ Pamphlet
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