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| Arlind Gjokutaj in his office in Tirana, 2019 |
Arlind Gjokutaj was born in Gjirokastra in 1981.
He studied Business Administration at "Bocconi" University in Milan, as well as completed his master's studies in Finance and Risk Management at "Bicocca" University in Milan, Euronews Albania reports.
Gjokuta is a member of the High Level Management Team (Known locally with the acronym "TND") since January 2016.
His career in the public sector:
► He started as an expert on fiscal and monetary issues at the Bank of Albania
► Special Coordinator for the Economy at the Council of Ministers (2015-2017)
► General Director of the Money Laundering Prevention Directorate (2017-2019)
► General Director of Customs (2019) and General Director of the Special Anticorruption and Antievasion Unit (2020-2021)
The reason for the arrest
The general secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Arlind Gjokutaj, together with two directors of this institution, has been arrested, after having misused their duties according to an open investigation against the citizen Ilir Thana, who was compensated for the privatization of a state enterprise despite having been paid before.
The sum of 480 million leks that was transferred to the citizen Thana is considered a theft in the State Budget.
According to the prosecution, the building was sold to the arrested Thana for over 1 million leks by the government service directorate in April 1992, along with a piece of land.
But three years later, the property restitution commission returned the building to the former owners.
Thana was paid in 2015 by the Ministry of Finance. The same minister once again transferred 480 million leks to Thana and his sister, causing considerable damage to the state.
Arlind Gjokutaj was also the head of the General Directorate of Customs. Gjokutaj previously headed the General Directorate of Prevention of Money Laundering.