A network of satellite subcontractors was used by Bankers Petroleum to steal billions of lek from Albanian public wealth at the Patos-Marinza oil field. Qinglong, Albtalent, Petrosolution and Global Energy Solution are companies, all founded at almost the same time, to implement a sophisticated scheme to steal and transfer Albanian oil money to China.
Although the ownership papers of these companies listed several citizens from Kazakhstan, the Fier prosecution has proven that their real owners were the Chinese executives of Bankers Petroleum, who are also the originators of the criminal scheme. But how were Albanians robbed through this scheme?
Bankers Petroleum has been exploiting the Patos-Marinza oil field for over 20 years. Since the beginning, all employees have been part of the company. But in 2021, the Chinese invented a trick, that of delegating employee recruitment to another company. For this purpose, Albtalent was created.
Recycling
Owned on paper by a Kazakh national named Dauren Zhumbayev, Albtalent formally supplied Bankers with employees. In fact, these were the same employees who had worked for Bankers for years, but the triangular scheme was set up in order for the money to pass from Bankers to Albtalent, from the latter to Kazakhstan and later to China.
In 4 years through Albtalent Solution, Bankers transferred around 20 million euros out of Albania through an activity that was often fictitious. After the fictitious billing scheme was uncovered by the tax investigation, three months ago, the real owners of Albtalent emerged. Daren Zhumbayev sold Albtalent to the company Geojade, which owns Bankers.
The sale is another criminal scheme in its own right. In the contract, the parties have stipulated that the 2.6 million euro purchase price of Albtalent from Geojade will be paid into an account outside Albania. So the money never arrives in Albania, so that the Albanian authorities will not be able to collect the debts, let alone the capital gains tax.
Subcontracting subcontractors
Qinlgong, Petrosolution and Global Energy Solution, three companies with owners in Kazakhstan, were created for another purpose. To subcontract Bankers' work in the field and to rent pumps or other equipment needed in the daily activity of exploiting the resource. In some cases, these companies have even subcontracted subcontractors.
Most of the field work was carried out by the same Albanian companies that had been working with Bankers for 20 years. But now the contracts were not awarded directly by Bankers to Albanian subcontractors, but in a triangular scheme. Bankers subcontracted to Qinglong, Petrosolution and Gesi, while these subcontracted to Albanian companies.
The introduction of three wedge companies into the subcontracting scheme had two purposes. First, for the Chinese to steal from the Albanian state and secondly for their shareholders. Qinglong, Petrosolution and Ges have disappeared at least 50 million euros from the Patos Marinza field.
The spider scheme that the Chinese set up through satellite subcontractors, which were actually owned by them, was the reason why the tax investigation against Bankers Petroleum was launched, which led to the arrest of several employees of the company. But these companies did their job, disappearing Albanian oil money without paying taxes and debts they had to the state. And this money was used to buy new oil fields in Afghanistan and Iraq. Meanwhile, Albanian citizens were robbed.
Editorial
