A video material has been published, in the audio of which the claim is heard that former President Hashim Thaçi, former Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, former Speaker of Parliament Kadri Veseli and former Deputy Prime Minister Fatmir Limaj have millions of euros in assets in the Bank of Cyprus.
Video material was published on Sunday (June 14) on Facebook, on the account named "Sergio Selimi".
What's wrong with the content?
After verifying the facts by hibrid.info, it turns out that the claim is unfounded.
As of the time of writing, the content has 192 likes, 69 comments and 207 shares. The account publishing the video has over 55 thousand followers and frequently publishes content in support of the Vetëvendosje Movement (see here).
Transcripted video
"Cyprus has billions of dollars from Albanian corruption. Hashim Thaçi's wealth there is 78.900.538, approximately 79 million dollars. Ramush Haradinaj has hidden 68.305.985, or over 68 million dollars, in the Cyprus bank. Kadri Veseli has more than 98.780.687 dollars, or 99 million dollars. Fatmir Limaj also has not a little, but 81.645.490 dollars, approximately 82 million dollars, also in the Bank of Cyprus."
Hibrid.info has researched through the search engine "Google" with the words of the caption "Arben Ahmetaj, the 'tiger' of tax havens", which can be seen in the video material (see here).
The search results showed the authentic video from which the video in question was taken. The video in question was published on October 7, 2021 on the Facebook page named “pamfleti.net” (see here).
The video begins with the words heard in the audio 'Written by Sokol Pepushaj', which suggests that the content presented may represent the views or opinions of an author.
Hibrid.info searched the website “pamfleti.net” for the words “sokol pepushaj.” The search results did not show any articles with the claims heard in this audio, however, the articles displayed in the results indicate that the content of the author Sokol Pepushaj is opinion writing.
Hibrid.info searched on "Google" with the keywords "The wealth of Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veseli, Ramush Haradinaj and Fatmir Limaj Cyprus". The search results did not reveal any credible and official sources that would confirm the claims in question.
Moreover, the same claim was addressed once again by hibrid.info (see here).
To further investigate the claims, hibrid.info used the online platform "deklarimi.org", of the organization "Lëvizja Fol", where the asset declarations of around 450 senior public officials in Kosovo from 2010 to 2019 are presented (see here).
According to the data presented separately for each of the former state officials mentioned in the content discussed, it results that Hashim Thaçi, in his last declaration of 2019, had reported a total asset of 700,507.81 euros. Ramush Haradinaj, in the 2025 declaration, appears with a total declared asset of 2,231,610.37 euros. Kadri Veseli, in the last declaration of 2020, had reported assets worth a total of 271,311.34 euros, while Fatmir Limaj, in 2021, had declared a total of 858,146.00 euros in assets.
Analyze:
A video material has been published on social networks, where the audio claims that former President Hashim Thaçi, former Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, former Speaker of Parliament Kadri Veseli, and former Deputy Prime Minister Fatmir Limaj have assets worth tens of millions hidden in the "Bank of Cyprus".
The audio gives concrete figures in millions for each of them, claiming around 79 million dollars for Hashim Thaçi, over 68 million for Ramush Haradinaj, around 99 million for Kadri Veseli, and around 82 million for Fatmir Limaj.
After verification, no official or credible sources were found to confirm these claims. Also, the video material appears to be detached from earlier content and used out of context, with the audio attributed to an opinion piece, without verifiable factual evidence.
Therefore, based on its work methodology, hibrid.info assesses these claims as "Unverified Content" and "Disinformation".
Reasoning:
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.
"Disinformation" is defined as information content that contains a "mix" of inaccurate sources or even half-truthful attributes, and that is created and/or distributed with the deliberate intention of causing harm. The motive behind the producers/distributors of disinformation content lies in achieving a political, financial, psychological or social goal.