Albania Profits from Crime – at the Expense of the Victim
In September 2025, SPAK confirmed in a written response to The Injustice Chronicle—following my inquiry—that the Bluenergy case had moved to the High Court (Gjykata e Lartë), where the defendants’ appeal remained pending. A second request for information in December 2025 remained unanswered. By 12 January 2026, SPAK and the Albanian media had provided no further updates. The case now sits buried in the High Court’s backlog, and the victims’ chances of restitution have faded with it.
Albanian Criminal Law Protects Offenders, Not Victims
Albanian authorities offer no practical path for victim compensation, even when SPAK seizes millions in criminal assets. This investigation demonstrates how Albania’s legal framework systematically excludes victims from restitution.
Forty‑one German citizens lost seven million euros to the Albanian call‑center company Bluenergy sh.p.k.. They also lost every legal claim to the assets SPAK seized from the perpetrators. Albanian institutions have not planned any restitution. In the end, only the Albanian state benefits from this system.
RTSH reports that the seven million euros disappeared through foreign bank accounts and cryptocurrency channels. SPAK seized real estate, bank deposits, and company shares and requested their confiscation under the Anti‑Mafia Law No. 10192⁄2009.
Although the 2019 amendments to the Anti‑Mafia Law allow SPAK to confiscate assets, Albanian authorities have never implemented Article 37—the provision that should enable victim compensation. No institution has created procedures, criteria, or mechanisms to distribute confiscated assets to victims. Instead, the state absorbs everything.
This pattern repeats across multiple SPAK cases. When SPAK reports confiscated assets to Parliament, the institution never mentions victim compensation. SPAK enforces confiscation; Albanian law blocks restitution.
The exclusion mechanism originates in Article 190 of the Albanian Code of Criminal Procedure.
No origin, no compensation.
SPAK seized one building, eleven apartments, a commercial unit, three garages, a plot of land, four orchards totaling 3,100 m², and more than 19.9 million lek plus 574,424 euros in bank accounts. Albanian law prevents the state from using these assets to compensate the victims, even though the documented damage exceeds seven million euros.
Article 190(1) requires courts to return assets to defendants when prosecutors cannot prove criminal origin.
During the criminal proceedings, SPAK did not conduct an asset‑tracing investigation. The defendants requested a shortened procedure, and the complexity of the case—involving 41 victims—further limited the investigation. Judgment No. 43 of 8 July 2024 from the Special Court Against Corruption and Organized Crime (GJKKO) documents this omission.
Because SPAK did not prove the criminal origin of the assets, GJKKO ordered their return to the convicted offenders.
Germany’s §459h of the Code of Criminal Procedure allows courts to transfer seized assets or substitute proceeds to victims. Albania offers no equivalent mechanism. Article 190 forces courts to return assets to offenders when prosecutors cannot prove origin—even after conviction.
Prime Minister Edi Rama has governed Albania for more than a decade but has never reformed Article 190 to protect victims. The provision continues to cement a legal system that prioritizes offenders over those they defrauded.
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41 German victims—0 euros returned. The state keeps everything.
More Articles from the International Archive—Injustice Chronicle
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