A video has been published with the caption "Radio Television of Slovenia: Kurti's Man Received 1.8 Million Euros from Serbia. Martin Berishaj is a citizen of Serbia."
This content was published on June 15 on Facebook by the page named "RTK supporters" and on June 16 from the page named "vox24.net.".
Is the claim true?
Slovenian Radio Television had reported on the investigation into transfers from Gen-I Belgrade to Martin Berishaj's companies, for which there is no court decision confirming it as an illegal benefit.
Also, this television's reporting mentions that Berishaj has political connections and closeness to the circle of the incumbent Prime Minister, Albin Kurti.
However, this report does not confirm that Berishaj is a Serbian citizen.
Reason for treatment
Up until the moment of treatment, the content published on the page "Sympatizantët e PDK-së" has received over 590 likes, 217 shares, over 80 comments and 38 thousand views. While the one published on "vox24.net." has 125 likes, 15 comments and over 8 thousand and 800 thousand views.
Page "PDK supporters” has over 80 thousand followers, while the page “vox24.net."There are over 3 thousand of them."
The claim is based on video footage of the report (July 9, 2025) by Slovenian state television. Hibrid.info found the online article, which also contains the video footage of the report, on the website of this television (see here).
Article translated into Albanian:
In Kosovo, he is being investigated on suspicion of money laundering.
Slovenia will no longer investigate the “GEN-I Beograd” affair. During the preliminary procedure, the Slovenian prosecution has established that there is a well-founded suspicion of the criminal offense of abuse of office, but this offense is suspected to have been committed by a Serbian citizen. For this reason, the Slovenian prosecution has delegated the case to the Serbian one.
The Specialized State Prosecutor's Office in Slovenia has completed the investigation into the cooperation between Martin Berishaj's companies and the subsidiary "GEN-I Belgrade", at a time when the GEN-I energy group was led by the current Prime Minister of Slovenia, Robert Golob. The case has now been handed over to the Serbian prosecutor's office.
The affair with money transfers from the GEN-I business system to two companies of the then (and current) ambassador to Kosovo, Martin Berishaj, broke out three days before the last parliamentary elections in Slovenia, when documents from a foreign money laundering prevention office (believed to be from Montenegro) were published.
In Slovenia, the Specialized Prosecution Office and the National Investigation Office (NPU) initiated the preliminary procedure at the end of 2022. This process has recently been completed, which was also confirmed by the prosecution itself:
“In this case, the suspicion of committing the criminal offense of abuse of position or trust in economic activity under Article 240 of the Criminal Code (KZ-1) was being investigated. After the preliminary procedure, it was suspected that the criminal offense was committed by a person who is a citizen of the Republic of Serbia and is located in Serbia. Since the Republic of Serbia does not extradite its citizens and since there is a suspicion that the criminal offense was committed on the territory of Serbia (where the legally prohibited consequences also occurred) and where all the relevant evidence is located, the case has been transferred to the competent authorities of Serbia with a request to take over the criminal prosecution. Due to the interests of the investigation and the protection of personal data, we cannot provide you with any further information.”
The contract with Martin Berishaj was signed by Borislav Antović, who works as a financial advisor at “GEN-I Beograd.” Contacted by phone, Antović stated that he could not make any statements without the consent of his employer.
During the period of cooperation with Berishaj, the “GEN-I Belgrade” subsidiary was led by Igor Koprivnikar. The latter stated on the phone that for questions about the prosecution procedure we should contact the GEN-I public relations office. The same answer was given by the cabinet of the Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob. On the other hand, the GEN-I company claimed that they do not have any official information about this procedure.
"GEN-I Beograd" transferred two million euros to Berishaj's two companies
What exactly is this about? During the period when the GEN-I group was led by Robert Golob, the Serbian subsidiary “GEN-I Belgrade” transferred over two million euros in multiple installments to Martin Berishaj’s two companies, which bore the same name – “MB Consulting” (one registered in Kosovo and the other in Montenegro). Berishaj withdrew almost all of this money – about 1.8 million euros – immediately in cash.
Major questions were raised in public opinion about what work Berishaj (who is a political scientist by profession) had done in exchange for this money and why he withdrew so much cash.
The chairman of the board of GEN-I in Slovenia, Maks Helbl, stated in February 2023 on the investigative show "Tarča" that "GEN-I Belgrade" paid Berishaj 0.5 percent of the value of transactions for the supply of electricity, which Berishaj had helped secure in Kosovo, Albania and Montenegro through his information.
“For a company to be competitive in the market, it must possess some key information in order to limit the risks that arise from such business relationships,” Helbl said at the time. According to him, Berishaj had helped with information about the state of the energy system, the risks that accompany economic activity in each country, as well as the risks that arise from the business environment itself.
Berishaj, who is known to be part of the close circle of Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, but who also has influential connections in Slovenia (as he also holds Slovenian citizenship), has only publicly explained his work for GEN-I before the parliamentary investigative committee in Kosovo.
"I advised them on how the company should act politically. I did not deal with the sale of energy, I offered them a political perspective on the strategies that a country has in a given situation," he declared in November 2022.
Meanwhile, the Kosovo media outlet Nacionale recently reported that the Kosovo Special Prosecution Office is expected to soon file an indictment against Berishaj. He is being investigated on suspicion of money laundering, tax evasion, and concealment of information on his assets.
Martin Berishaj has not responded to RTV SLO's requests to comment on this matter.
In the article titled "Gen-i transfers to Martin Berishaj: The prosecution has established suspicion of abuse of position", it is said that Martin Berishaj is being investigated for suspicions of abuse of position or trust in economic activity, specifically for suspicious transfers of over 2 million euros that the company "GEN-I Belgrade" made to two of his companies named MB Consulting (one in Kosovo and one in Montenegro), during the time when the "GEN-I" group was led by the current Prime Minister of Slovenia, Robert Golob (see here).
Berishaj was also reported to be known as part of the close circle of the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti (see here).
The report states that the Slovenian Prosecutor's Office has transferred the case to the Serbian one, after assessing that there is suspicion of a criminal offense of abuse of official position, which is alleged to have been committed by a Serbian citizen.
But, in this content, it is not directly confirmed that Martin Berishaj has Serbian citizenship.
The article indicates he is being investigated in Kosovo on suspicion of money laundering (see here) and says that Berishaj also has Slovenian citizenship (see here).
Hibrid.info once again addressed a similar claim (see here).
Analyze:
Transfers of over 2 million euros from Gen-I Belgrade to Martin Berishaj's companies, as well as the withdrawal of around 1.8 million euros in cash, are consistent with the reporting by Radio Television of Slovenia, but this data remains part of an investigation and has not been confirmed as illegal activity by a court decision.
According to the report, Berishaj is mentioned as a person who is "known to be part of the close circle of Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti."
While the report indicates that the Slovenian Prosecutor's Office has determined that the criminal offense is suspected of being committed by a Serbian citizen on the territory of Serbia, the publication of the report does not provide the identity of the suspect.
Therefore, based on its work methodology, hibrid.info assesses the content as "Fact manipulation" and "Unverified content".
Reasoning:
“Factual manipulation” is a rating given to informational content that uses facts known to be accurate but interprets them in a distorted manner. These reports typically use accurate information to draw incorrect conclusions or claims, thereby misleading consumers of media content about the actual meaning of the facts presented.
The "Unverified" rating is given to those informative contents that do not provide sufficient information to confirm the claims made in the report, and which could not be verified due to certain circumstances (speed, lack of sources) during the publication of the content.