The prosecution and police of Kavaja have arrested a group of employees from Kavaja’s asset registry, who are accused of falsifying property certificates with the aim of placing the ownership of 36 ha. on the seaside into the hands of a series of fictional owners. According to several media reports, all the names of the prospective owners are family members of ousted Kavaja mayor Elvis Rroshi, PS Chairman in Kavaja Gentian Daja, and Deputy Prefect of Tirana Fatos Kaja.
The group of asset registry employees had changed the destination of the land from state-owned public beach to agricultural land, after which it was distributed among the family members of the Socialist Party politicians. The fraud covered a period from 2013, when the Rama government came in power, until 2016, but the falsified documents state that the land had been distributed from 2000 to 2003, in the period the agricultural land redistribution took place. In this way, the employees secured the transfer of ownership of public lands into the hand of a number of people closely connected with local leaders of the Socialist Party.
Afterwards, the fraudulently acquired land was sold several times in order to make the fraud irreversible, and with the expectation that tourist development in the area would take off.
