HIDAA, suspicions on Fatos Lulo

An investigative report of Balkan Investigative Reporting Network explains the suspicions of the High Inspectorate of Declaration and Audit of Assets which are related with Lulo’s assets and his arguments about it.

According to the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, also published on “Shqip” newspaper, Lulo was graduated in Tirana’s university in the early ‘80s, and served as a lawyer at the office of Adil Carcani. He also worked at the Ministry of Labor.

From 1994 to 1999, he opened a law firm in Tirana, and according to his biography, he emigrated to Canada in 1999 where he worked as a lawyer at the Canadian Emigration Office, before returning to Tirana as a lawyer in 2002.

In 2003 he was elected at the National Council of Radio and Television, and continued his career as lawyer until 2006, when he was appointed member of the Supreme Court, without having any experience as a judge.

Being a public administration official, Lulo was obliged to declare his assets since 2003. The first declaration showed that he had a property in Tirana, with a value of 68.000 EUR, bought with his personal savings and by the sale of another house.

He also had an apartment under construction in Canada, with a value of 100.000 EUR, and an office with a value of 95.000 EUR, all bought with the profits of his work as lawyer.

Lulo declared that he had a bank account in Toronto, Canada, with 324.000 EUR in it, which he had also earned by working as an emigrant.

His law firm in Albania was registered as a small business with revenues less than 8 million ALL (58.000 EUR) annually, but it gave him 195.000 EUR within five years, from 1994-1999.

The problem with these numbers is that during his time as a lawyer, he never declared higher income than 1.2 million ALL annually (8700), according to BIRN.

The declaration that he saved 400.000 CAD for three years by working at the Immigration Service, according to BIRN, also brings up some suspicions. The average salary of a public employee in Canada is 60.000 annually.

In 2005, while still working as a lawyer, Lulo declared that he returned to his sister a loan of 480.000 USD.

In 2008 he received as a gift from his sister a sum of 100.000 USD and in 2009, again in 2009, his sister gave him a 172 square meter office in Tirana, with a value of 200.000 EUR.

The judge refused to answer to BIRN about the large amounts of savings, and why his sister made him as gift such large amounts of money.

Lulo’s sister is an engineer that works with a company named “Technoproject”. It is unclear if she has other resources besides her wage.

In the meanwhile, the High Inspectorate of Declaration and Audit of Assets told BIRN in 2012 that the large gifts or loans with a zero interest for high rank officials is a real problem in Albania.

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