Montenegro NGO Says Ex-President Hid Cash in HSBC

MANS on Monday handed documents to Montenegro's chief prosecutor, alleging that the wife of the former president of Serbia and Montenegro, Svetozar Marovic, stashed away millions of US dollars in a secret bank account held by the Swiss arm of HSBC bank.

The bank has been at the centre of a scandal over secret bank accounts in which tax dodgers and tax evaders allegedly squirreled away vast sums of money with the bank's knowledge.

MANS, an organisation well known for its criticism of the Montenegrin government, said it had a reasonable suspicion that the money in the secret bank account was acquired illegally, since the Marovics' asset declarations do not indicate that it could be legal.

The organization urged the prosecution to investigate the origins of the Marovic family's assets at the same time as the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, OCCRP, on Monday pubished a collaborative probe with MANS into those assets, including the Swiss bank account held by his wife, Djordjina.

The joint MANS and OCCRP report claimed the account at one time held $3.8 million dollars, which they say Marovic should by law have declared as an asset.

Montenegro's Law on Prevention of Conflict of Interest requires public officials to file a statement on the day they take office listing their assets and liabilities and those of their closest family members. They must also update it yearly.  

Marovic has never listed deposits in HSBC in any of his annual asset declarations, the report said.

Marovic, 59, has held a number of senior public offices since 1990 when he was elected as a member of the presidency of the Republic of Montenegro.

He was president of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro between...