The Albanian Democratic Party has asked the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SPAK) to investigate Mayor of Tirana Erion Veliaj for money laundering.
The reason behind the call for an investigation is due to the Italian partner company in the Municipality of Tirana company ‘EcoTirana”, was accused by Italian authorities of money laundering for the mafia group Ndrangheta.
The PD said that SPAK is obliged to investigate Veliaj to ascertain whether Tirana has been turned into a “washing machine for cleaning the dirty money of the Italian mafia.”
The news was published by several Italian news outlets last week.
Andrea Miglioranzi, the head of the AGSM Holding Administrative Board until January 30, 2018, and president of Amia (one of the two AGSM shareholder companies), and former Verona mayor Flavio Tosi, who signed the contract to create the joint EcoTirana company, are currently being investigated for collaborating with members of the ‘Ndrangheta mafia group.
On June 4, 2020, the Italian prosecution office found that “Amia has been used to circulate money [connected to the ‘Ndrangheta criminal organization], and its two leaders are currently under investigation.”
In June 2016, Tirana mayor Erion Veliaj created a joint company, wherein the municipality partnered with the Verona municipality company Amia, whose purpose was collecting waste in Tirana.
To this purpose, in June 2016 EcoTirana was created, with €1 million in initial capital, and owned by the Tirana municipality (51%) and the Italian company AGMS Holding (49%). The latter is, in turn, owned by AGSM and Amia, two municipal companies under the control of the Verona municipality.
Appointed by mayor Tosi, Andrea Miglioranzi was the head of the AGSM Holding Administrative Board and the president of Amia. He is an infamous name in Italian political and judicial news.
