Prosecutor in the Supreme State Prosecutor’s Office and former temporary head of that institution Drazen Burić for years, he solved the housing issue on preferential terms – through arrangements with the state, but also with the company “Bemaks”, which enabled him to acquire a 119-square-meter apartment in the elite “Tološki apartments” at a price lower than the market price.
Documentation obtained by the Research Center of the Network for the Affirmation of the Non-Governmental Sector (MANS) indicates that this was not an isolated case.
The plaintiff’s family had other arrangements with the same company – on the land owned by his closest relatives, “Bemaks” built a building in Tološi, and the Burićs kept several apartments and garage spaces in that building.
That plaintiff, however, is not the only one who had privileged treatment when buying real estate in “Tološki apartments”. MANS previously announced that the “special” price was also valid for Marko Lazovićthe son of a former longtime security operative Zoran Lazović.
Neither Burić nor the company “Bemaks” answered the questions regarding the arrangement when buying an apartment in “Tološki apartmani” in Podgorica.
Who was a better marketer – Burić or Bemaks?
The Burićs got their luxury apartment in 2016 – by exchanging a smaller property in the City Quarter for a much larger one in the “Bemaksa” complex, with an additional fee. According to the contract, they received an apartment of 119 square meters and a garage for a total of 119,000 euros, that is, the company took over their previous apartment of 92 square meters and they paid an additional 27,000 euros in cash.
In this way, they got a property at a price lower than 1,000 euros per square meter – below the then average in Podgorica, but also significantly below the real market value of real estate for that part of the city, where even a decade ago it was difficult to find a square meter under 1,600 euros.
The apartment that Bemaks acquired in this way changed owners several times in the following years, and data from the Podgorica cadastre obtained by the MANS Research Center show that the price for Burić’s former apartment in “City Quarter” ranged from 870 to 1,300 euros per square meter.
Until 2019, the apartment in “Tološki apartmani” was owned by the then wife of the plaintiff Nela Tamindžić Burić. That year, he is registered as the owner of half of the real estate.
Marko Lazović also owned a 104-square-meter apartment in the same complex, which MANS previously also found to have been purchased below the market price. Former, official owner of “Bemax” Veselin Kovačević then he said that he was “in a godfather relationship with Marko Lazović”…
Marko Lazović is the son of former influential police and secret service operative Zoran Lazović, now accused of creation of a criminal organization, abuse of official position, extended criminal offense of money laundering and extended criminal offense of illegal possession and carrying of weapons and explosive substances.
Burić did not answer how the price for that property was negotiated. The company “Bemaks” did not answer the questions about the price of a square meter in “Tološki apartments” either. “Bemaks” did not even answer the question whether, and if so, why the square meter of real estate was sold to Burić below the market value.
The state bought him, he sold and gave away
Burić was one of the prosecutors that the state took care of, so almost at the beginning of his career as a prosecutor, he was given a 37-square-meter apartment in the Blok five neighborhood of Podgorica by the decision of the Government in 2005.
He signed the contract with the then head of the State Property Administration Blazo Saranovicnow suspected of abuse of office. According to that document, Burić used the apartment in Block Five as a tenant for six years – from 1999, and in 2005 he bought it for only 3,700 or 3,145 euros due to a discount on cash payment. Burić sold that apartment in 2024 for 60,000 euros.
The Government Commission, headed by Predrag Boškovićonce again helped Burić to improve housing conditions with 20,000 euros in March 2019. At that time, according to the data available on the website of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, as well as the extensive documentation of MANS, Burić owned an apartment in Block five, bought for only 3,145 euros, but also half of the 119-square-meter apartment in “Tološki apartments”, which his ex-wife received in an exchange with the company “Bemaks”.
Almost at the same time – in February 2019, the plaintiff buys a 34-square-meter apartment in Budva, at a price of 55,000 euros. Burić probably directed the help of the Government to the purchase of that real estate in Budva, because, according to the contract, he paid the amount of 34,000 euros immediately, with the obligation to pay 21,000 euros by April 4, 2019. Burić gave the apartment in Budva to his daughter in August of the same year.
In the report on assets and income for 2018, the prosecutor claims that he is the owner of an apartment of 37, while his wife at the time, Nela Tamindžić Burić, had an apartment of 119 square meters in “Tološki apartments” and an inherited apartment of 50 square meters in her name. The family did not report any savings that year.
Already the following year, the prosecutor claims in an extraordinary report due to the use of property that he took out a loan to solve housing issues – 20,000 with the Government with an installment of 20 euros and an additional 21,000 with some Montenegrin banks.
In the regular annual report for 2019, Dražen Burić has no housing loans, and Nela Tamindžić Burić is not the owner of the inherited 50-square-meter apartment, but she has 57,000 euros in her account. That sale, however, at least according to the available data of ASK, was not reported in a separate report.
When asked whether the prosecutor, in accordance with the regulations, reported the sale with a special report, as well as whether during the previous years the property and income were the subject of in-depth control, the ASK replied that they will “initiate the verification procedure”.
“The public will be informed about all established facts and findings in a timely manner after the end of the procedure”, said the Agency.
Acquaintance with Mijajlovic
Burić’s name also appears in the files of the Special State Prosecutor’s Office – in the intercepted communications he is mentioned by the arrested Aleksandar Aco Mijajlović, designated as the alleged head of the “Grand” clan. For years, Mijajlovic was considered one of the key figures in “Bemaks”, although the company claims that he was never its owner, co-owner or employee.
According to the investigators’ suspicions, Mijajlovic allegedly committed several criminal acts.
In the communication, which is in the files of the SDT, the media reported earlier, Mijajlović talks to his cousin, then basic prosecutor Andrijana Nastić, about the upcoming dismissal of the deputy head of the Podgorica Basic State Prosecutor’s Office (ODT), Nikola Boričić.
He was removed from that position by the decision of the Higher State Prosecutor’s Office at the end of December 2021.
The decision on the dismissal was made only a few hours after the prosecutors in the Podgorica ODT did not choose Nastić, who was suggested to them by the Higher Prosecutor’s Office as a proposal for the new deputy of the Podgorica Prosecutor’s Office.
“Has the bully calmed down?” Mijajlović asks, among other things, about Boričić, and Nastić replies that he called the collegium.
“Convoked the collegium in the morning at 8:30 … Threaten the press tomorrow,” the prosecutor sent, after which Mijajlovic also mentioned the leaders of the then High and Supreme State Prosecutor’s Office – Lepa Medenica and Dražen Burić.
“Who ate it… They know Lepa and Dražen for that,” Mijajlovic answered her.
Burić did not answer questions about how long he has known Mijajlovic and whether that acquaintance could have influenced the price per square meter of the apartment his family bought in 2019 in “Tološki apartmani”.
In October 2025, the Prosecutor’s Council suspended Nastić because, it was announced at the time, criminal proceedings were initiated against her for an act that makes her unworthy to perform the function of a prosecutor.
Previously, that prosecutor was arrested in an operation by the SDT and the Special Police Department (SPO). Her uncle Mijajlović and former high-ranking police officials Milovan Pavićević, Drago Spičanović and Vladan Lazović were also arrested in the same operation.
There is also a case against Mijajlovic before the Podgorica High Court for smuggling cigarettes.
In March, at the beginning of the trial, Mijajlovic said that due to his health condition, he wrote a will in which he wrote down in detail who asked him for money.
“Due to my health condition, I wrote a will and stated who would be to blame if my children were left as orphans. I wrote down everything that happened, what was asked of me, what kind of money and apartments”, Mijajlović stated in his defense.
From the murder of Vojicic, through Telekom to Belivuk
The current judge of the High Court Boričić and the special prosecutor Vukas Radonjić previously, in front of the members of the Parliament of Montenegro, mentioned Burić as one of the superiors who disputed the order to arrest the police officers, allegedly responsible for lifting the ban on entry into Montenegro to Belgrade criminals Veljko Belivuk and Marko Miljković…
Burić, as the former deputy manager and prosecutor in the Podgorica ODT told at the time, asked that the case be handed over to special prosecutors.
Three years ago, Boričić, during a hearing in front of deputies at the Committee for Political System, Judiciary and Administration, said that he “became mad” because of that case.
According to the media, Burić was also part of several large prosecutorial investigations, which mostly ended without indictments.
He investigated the murder of Srđan Vojičić, the bodyguard of the late CANU academic Jevrem Brković, who lost his life protecting that Montenegrin writer. Burić was never charged in that case, and the murder has not been solved to this day.
He was one of the prosecutors who investigated the “Telekom” affair, and at that time he avoided traveling to the USA and taking over the documentation on that case, as an excuse that he did not speak English. That affair was closed, it was announced in the summer of last year, due to the absolute statute of limitations for criminal acts.
According to the media, Burić also led the investigation into the transfer of state property used by FK Mogren in Budva to companies linked to the convicted drug lord Darko Šarić, and in that case made a decision that there were no elements of a criminal offense. He made the same decision in the case of the “Tara” cigarette factory in Mojkovac, which for years was speculated to produce cigarettes intended for smuggling…
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