Anton Stanaj Dossier

A member of the powerful Montenegrin family that controls the Roksped empire, Anton Stanaj organized an international cigarette smuggling ring while using his family’s businesses as a base, according to prosecutors. Stanaj’s indictment and subsequent court fight provide a picture of widespread smuggling at the highest level – a crime that cost Balkan citizens millions of euros in tax money.

Stanaj was killed Friday, March 8th, in Sudan. 

Records compiled by the  Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project take a look not only at Stanaj, but at the family businesses which include exclusive Volkswagen and Audi distributorships in Montenegro, and which serve as the sole Balkan importer for Japan Tobacco International. And the records show the apparent special treatment given to the family.

Anton Stanaj was arrested in 2007 at the Belgrade airport in a police operation dubbed “Memphis,” for the brand of cigarette being smuggled. In March 2008 he was accused of organizing a group of 27 people in an international cigarette smuggling ring. Besides using the family business, Stanaj also used offshore companies to purchase cigarettes from factories in Dubai, Greece, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany and China, dealing not only with legal production and but also with counterfeit cigarettes, transported and stored through the Montenegrin port of Bar, according to court records.

In May 2011, the Belgrade District Court convicted Anton Stanaj and sentenced him to 6.5 years in prison and a €100,000 fine. For most people, especially foreign nationals, such a conviction means a quick trip to prison. However, Stanaj has been released on €400,000 bail.

OCCRP reporters also found that even while Stanaj sat in jail awaiting trial, Roksped continued operating as usual. The company won more than $4 million worth of contracts through the public tender process in Montenegro during the period of the indictment and trial.

Anton isn’t the only family member to have his share of troubles, according to court records. His brother Nuo was a director of Roksped and its various branches. In October, 2010 Nuo was charged with helping accused money launderer Zoran Copic sell a building owned by the privatized company Industrija Kotrljajucih Lezajeva AD, and embezzling the money. According to police records, the group illegally obtained €9.2 million in the sale.

Copic is on trial for allegations that he laundered money for narcotics kingpin Darko Saric, just one of many examples uncovered by the OCCRP People of Interest project of the deep and ingrained connections among Eastern European criminals.

To learn more about this person of interest, see their profile.