Reni Ashiku founded Converse Management Consulting in March 2018, together with a partner named Besarta Dika. The latter previously ran as an MP for the G 99 party and has strong business ties to former directors of the Tirana municipality.
The object of CMC was consultancy in the field of agribusiness and the implementation of rural and agricultural development projects, both on its own and on behalf of third parties, through technical assistance and training or advisory services. In short, the preparation of applications for farmers seeking grants in the AZHBR from the European Union's IPARD funds.
And the company, whose shares were owned 51 percent by Ashiku and 49 percent by Besarta Dika, began to flourish rapidly. From 2018 to 2021, Converse Management Consulting collected almost 1 million euros. But then, the issue of IPARD funds began to be investigated by OLAF and CMC's income plummeted.
Olaf's investigation into the distribution of IPARD funds found that AZHBR had abused or misappropriated over 33 million euros of EU taxpayers' money, which prompted the European Commission to take the unprecedented measure of cutting off funds to Albania.
One of the main mechanisms of abuse was precisely the project companies, which according to OLAF performed the role of realtors.
"Applicants for IPARD II were required to pay a large percentage of their grant to 'pre-selected' consulting companies, which would then facilitate contracts with the Albanian Agency for Rural Development and Agriculture (AZHBR), which distributed the funds," the OLAF investigation said.
Among the farmers, Ashiku was known as a key link to succeeding in AZHBR applications. In fact, some of them secretly considered him the main broker for distributing the money. Apparently, these rumors were not idle rumors.
Today, Ashiku was summoned to SPAK to be questioned about the issue of IPARD funds, where he stayed for a full 3 hours.
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