Aco Djukanovic's Bank Sues Montenegro for €6 Million

Prva banka, majority owned by businessman Aco Djukanovic, has sued Montenegro and is seeking a total of six million euros in damages over a police operation carried out on February 27 on Vuk Karadzic Street in Podgorica. The case is drawing attention in Belgrade as well, since Aco Djukanovic is the brother of Montenegro’s former president Milo Djukanovic, long the most influential figure in Montenegrin politics and someone whose moves the Serbian public also follows. The bank’s lawsuit against its own state raises the question of how far state authorities may go in dealing with private capital, a question that reaches beyond the borders of any single country in the region.

The lawsuit, according to the Podgorica outlet Vijesti as carried by N1 and Espreso, was signed by attorney Ana Djukanovic, the sister of both Milo and Aco Djukanovic. The bank is seeking five million euros in material damages from the state and an additional one million euros in non-material damages over harm to its reputation. It has proposed that the amount of material damage be determined by an economic and financial expert.

What Happened on February 27

According to the lawsuit, Prva banka’s branch on Vuk Karadzic Street was blockaded from 1:24 to 2:29 p.m., with armed police officers carrying long-barreled weapons present at the scene. Clients, the bank claims, were not allowed to enter the branch, while employees and clients who happened to be inside were forced to leave regardless of whether they had finished the business that brought them there. The bank also states that panic broke out among employees and clients, and that one employee needed emergency medical assistance.

The lawsuit also describes exactly how the police acted:

“Police Directorate officers, armed with long barreled firearms, ordered the plaintiff’s security staff to leave the bank’s premises, after which they pressed them against the glass wall at gunpoint, ordering them not to move or take any action.”

The operation in the building housing the branch was linked to a search of an apartment owned by Aco Djukanovic in the same building. Police entered the apartment under a warrant from the Basic Court in Podgorica, and the following day, February 28, Djukanovic was arrested after a search of his family home in the Niksic neighborhood of Rastoci, on suspicion of illegal possession of weapons and explosive materials. He was initially ordered into custody over flight risk, but the Niksic Basic Court later accepted bail offered by his defense lawyers: one million euros in cash, a mortgage lien on property worth more than four million euros, a ban on leaving his home under electronic monitoring, and the temporary confiscation of his travel documents.

Deposit Outflow and a Disputed Link

In the lawsuit, the bank claims that the police operation was followed by an outflow of 8.475 million euros in deposits, which it links directly to the raid and the media coverage that followed. Lost net interest income from the withdrawn deposits, according to the lawsuit, comes to around 1.002 million euros, while an additional 11,017 euros relates to lost fee income from payment processing and account maintenance.

The bank places particular emphasis on reputational harm, arguing that the presence of armed police and the blockade of the branch could have led the public to believe that the bank itself was the target of the operation:

“For banks, as financial institutions, the trust of the public, clients and business partners is a basic precondition for stable operations.”

According to the lawsuit itself, the Police Directorate responded to the bank by stating that its activities were not directed at Prva banka, its employees or its clients, but at another person and another location, and that the branch was temporarily secured only because it sits on the ground floor of the building where the search took place. Prva banka disputes this, arguing that there is no physical or functional connection between the searched apartment and the branch, and that the branch is not mentioned anywhere in the actual search warrant. The lawsuit therefore describes the police’s conduct toward the bank as unlawful.

What Comes Next

Vijesti was first to report on the lawsuit, and there is still no date for when a Montenegrin court will rule on Prva banka’s claim. The case comes as Montenegro, like parts of the wider region, continues to debate the limits of police authority over businesses, and the outcome of the lawsuit is already being described as a potential precedent for how the state treats companies that believe they became collateral damage, without cause, in an investigation aimed at someone else.