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| Montage of Alda Klosi, and several hundred euros and jewelry in the background |
The Tirana Police announced on Saturday, February 4, 2023, the execution of the order of the capital's prosecutor's office for the arrest of 41-year-old Alda Klosi, former official of the Financial Supervision Authority and former chief of staff of the former Minister of State for Reconstruction and Program of Reforms, Arben Ahmetaj. The arrest of the former high official came after the investigation of her report made to the police for the theft of hundreds of thousands of euros.
According to the police, the Prosecutor's Office of Tirana requested the arrest of Klos for the criminal offenses "refusal to declare, non-declaration, concealment or false declaration of assets, private interests of elected persons and public servants, or of any other person who has the legal obligation to statement", "cleaning the proceeds of a criminal offense or chemical activity" and "false statement before the judicial police officer".
The event began after the announcement of the theft of Klos's apartment on Kosovar Street in Tirana, last December. The police arrested Rozeta Dobi and Javier Dobi, mother and son, under the charge of theft after a considerable amount of money was found in their house and several cars were seized from Javier.
Klosi later declared to the police that there were 120,000 euros and 30,000 dollars in the apartment, in addition to jewelry, at the time of the theft, local media report.
Meanwhile, the police kept Rozeta Dobi, who worked as a cleaner, and Javier under surveillance at the police station while they discussed another amount of money hidden in the kitchen fan pipe.
The police did not find this amount in the first check, but when they revisited the apartment, they found 404,000 euros and 8,500 dollars. In total, the police found 462,950 euros, 15,500 US dollars and 368,000 ALL.
The opposition says that the presence of so much money is an indicator of the level of corruption in the government of Prime Minister Edi Rama. The incident attracted widespread public attention throughout the month of January and was largely forgotten until Klosi's arrest on Friday.