Shkelzen Berisha's Attempts to Deflect Arms Scandal Accusations Fall Short

One of the most striking similarities between Shkelzen Berisha and his father, Sali Berisha, is their approach to deflecting accusations. When faced with allegations, Sali Berisha habitually denies them by referencing unrelated accusations. Shkelzen, it seems, has adopted the same tactic.

Shkelzen Berisha’s involvement in a 2008 arms dealing scandal is connected to the actions of his father, who was then the Prime Minister of Albania. The scandal was brought to light through the dealings of Efraim Diveroli and David Packouz, two young American arms dealers running a company called AEY, Inc. In 2007, AEY secured a $298 million contract with the U.S. Department of Defense to supply munitions to Afghan forces. However, they violated U.S. law by supplying Chinese-made ammunition, falsely labeled as Albanian, to bypass an American embargo on Chinese arms.

In a recent podcast, David Packouz revealed that their deal with the Albanian government was facilitated by Mihal Delijorgji, a local businessman with connections to Shkelzen Berisha. Packouz recounted: "In the end, Ylli Pinari, another Albanian businessman, said he would facilitate a meeting with the decision-maker. That person was Delijorgji. We later discovered that Delijorgji was the head of the mob and he had connections with the prime minister’s son, Shkelzen, who was also present at the meeting." Packouz’s account makes it clear that the meeting with Shkelzen Berisha was no coincidence. It also sheds light on how government contracts were manipulated during Sali Berisha’s administration, a practice that had repercussions even in the United States.

Thus, Shkelzen Berisha’s claim that Packouz wasn’t at the meeting is almost laughable because Packouz never said he was. Instead, he stated that Shkelzen, Delijorgji, and Diveroli were the ones who met. Shkelzen is denying something that was never alleged in the first place.

Even more absurd is Shkelzen Berisha’s attempt to reinterpret Efraim Diveroli’s statement to the American court. Shkelzen has already lost his legal battle over this issue in the U.S. But in typical fashion, he believed that American justice would buy into his narrative, which is why he sued the author of "Arms and the Dudes" for defamation, trying to exploit Diveroli’s court statement.

However, Diveroli’s statement was simply a legal strategy to reduce his sentence. Admitting that he had bribed the prime minister’s son, Shkelzen Berisha, could have led to an eight-year prison sentence. The U.S. court made this clear to Shkelzen in its ruling against him, a ruling that also left unanswered questions about the source of the money he used to pay the $60 million in compensation to the author of the “Arms and the Dudes.”

With the loss of the defamation case in the U.S., Shkelzen Berisha has also lost any credibility in trying to spin new lies about this story. The U.S. court dismissed his claims of non-involvement in the arms dealing scandal, just as the London court dismissed Sali Berisha’s denials of links to organized crime and corruption.

Shkelzen Berisha is accused not merely because he met with the businessmen involved in the arms deal, but because he was there to secure the contract with the Albanian government, which was led by his father at the time. He could have guaranteed the contract with a simple phone call but chose to attend in person, confident that his father’s political influence would protect him from any legal repercussions.

This is the core of the accusation against Shkelzen Berisha. He will need to face this in court, rather than resorting to childish distractions about who was or wasn’t at the meeting that sealed the arms deal. The real issue here is the Berisha family’s capture of the Albanian state and the fact that government contracts required Shkelzen’s approval.

This is what needs to be investigated and brought to trial. The specifics of who attended the meeting are secondary and do not absolve Shkelzen Berisha of responsibility. He remains deeply implicated, having used his father’s influence to earn millions for himself. His guilt would be the same even if he had skipped the meeting altogether.

Moreover, if we revisit his statements from 2008, Shkelzen initially claimed he didn’t know who Delijorgji was, then said he had never spoken to him on the phone, and now asserts they never met. However, phone records reveal that the two spoke frequently, sometimes up to 20 times a week, including just half an hour after the explosion in Gerdec. Instead of rushing to deny the meeting with the American businessmen, Shkelzen Berisha should address these issues with the appropriate legal authorities, rather than through the media.

The article initially appeared in Albanian titled: "Shkëlzeni po na tregon, kush nuk ka qenë në takim"