Taxpayers bail out air traffic control company whose foreign accounts were seized by Belgian court to pay Becchetti
Story Highlights
- Controversial Italian businessman getting millions, despite Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama's repeated assertions that he would “not get a cent” from Albania.
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TIRANA, Jan. 24, 2024 - The Albanian government has had to pump millions of euros to keep afloat Albcontrol, the state-owned company responsible for air navigation services in Albanian airspace, as its foreign accounts have been frozen by the order of Brussels First Instance Court to pay a controversial Italian businessman, Francesco Becchetti, according to recently released financial documents.
Becchetti won a substantial financial ruling at the International Court of Arbitration and is now able to extract it, despite Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama's repeated assertions that he would “not get a cent” from Albania.
The fine, amounting to 109 million euros, was imposed by the International Court of Arbitration as compensation for government acts that included the seizure and closure of his TV channel, Agon, by Albanian authorities in 2015.
Concurrently, Becchetti faces a 17-year prison sentence in absentia in Albania for money laundering.
-Government loan to keep Albcontrol afloat
In December 2023, the government provided Albcontrol with a 3 billion lek loan (approximately 28 million euros), following which the company's financial statements for 2022 revealed significant financial difficulties resulting from the frozen accounts in Brussels.
The financial statements disclosed that Albcontrol received no revenue from air navigation services during 2022 and 2021 due to the Brussels First Instance Court's decision to freeze accounts held by Albcontrol with Eurocontrol. The total sum blocked amounts to 6.75 billion leks, exceeding 60 million euros.
With the majority of its revenues derived from these services, Albcontrol received two loans totaling almost 50 million euros from the government.
-PM had vowed not pay a cent-
Becchetti had several businesses in Albania, including Agon Channel, a television station with a firm anti-government bent. It was closed following an investigation by authorities on its funding, which led to charges of tax evasion and fraud for Becchetti. Convicted by Albanian courts, he is still wanted by Albanian authorities, although a court in the UK, where Becchetti lives, refused to give permission for extradition.
Rama, expressing dissatisfaction with the court's decisions, hinted at the possibility of Albania withdrawing from the court last year, as Albania is grappling with multiple claims from foreign investors utilizing the World Bank-funded arbitration court to adjudicate disputes.
"A criminal tried and sentenced to 17 years in prison for defrauding the Albanian state manages to get his way in a court. … Starting from next week, we are even analyzing the possibility of leaving that jurisdiction altogether because what happened is scandalous," Rama said back then, referring to Becchetti.
No action to withdraw from the court has been taken since. Independent experts note that the withdrawal from ICSID, a body that includes most of the world’s advanced economies and all democracies, would hurt foreign investments and leave Albania at the mercy of government arbitrary decisions.
Two additional multi-million euro claims have been filed against Albania in the same court, both involving foreign companies alleging breaches of contracts with Durres Port Authority after the unexpected government allocation of the port for housing and marina development.
-A controversial figure-
Becchetti first arrived in Albania in the 1990s, earning a reputation as a controversial figure who received a lot of his wealth through legal procedures rather than fruitful investment.
The investigation into Becchetti's activities by Albanian authorities initially centered around a significant hydroelectric plant in southern Albania, pledged as an investment but left unrealized.
Prosecutors say that his companies submitted artificially inflated bills for non-existent work and sought value-added tax reimbursements based on forged documents. Following years of inactivity on the project, the Albanian government revoked Becchetti's concession for the Kalivaç hydropower project in 2014.
