Country
Montenegro
Year
2022
Issuing Entity
US
Type
Individual
Institution
US Department of Treasury
Executive Order
E.O. 14033
Grounds
Corruption
Additional information
Former president of Serbia and Montenegro. Svetozar Marovic (Marovic) was the President of the Serbia and Montenegro common state from 2003–2006, and served as former deputy president of the Montenegro Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) until 2015. Marovic was arrested by Montenegro authorities in 2015 for suspected involvement in large-scale corruption cases relating to construction projects in the municipality of Budva. Montenegro prosecutors accused Marovic of using his influence as a senior official in the DPS to approve a series of property purchases and construction deals that reaped large gains for several companies but caused significant losses for the local government. In 2016, Marovic signed two plea deals admitting to all the corruption charges against him. He was sentenced to multiple years in prison and was ordered to return over $1 million to the state but fled to Serbia before serving his sentence.
Marovic was designated pursuant to E.O. 14033 for being responsible for, or complicit in, or having directly or indirectly engaged in, corruption related to the Western Balkans, including corruption by, on behalf of, or otherwise related to a government in the Western Balkans, or a current or former government official at any level of government in the Western Balkans, such as the misappropriation of public assets, expropriation of private assets for personal gain or political purposes, or bribery.
