Is Alex Soros helping Erion Veliaj escape justice?

The former mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, and close friend of Alex Soros, is currently in a cell under the security measure of "prison arrest", accused of corruption.

Like dozens of American politicians, Veliaj is among those photographed on Alex's social media accounts. Just a casual Google search for "Erion Veliaj Alex Soros" brings up many results, writes journalist Matt Palumbo in an analysis for "Silverloch."

In a photo from September 2023, Alex posted a photo of the two of them at the Air Albania Stadium. In another photo of the two from February 2024, Veliaj was the one who posted the photo of the two, with a caption referring to Alex as "his brother."

Veliaj has since been arrested on nine charges of corruption and money laundering in February and is being held in prison. His wife is also under investigation, and it has now been revealed that she made luxury purchases totaling nearly 900,000 euros. For context, the maximum salary for the mayor of Tirana is around 3,000 euros.

The Special Prosecution Office against Corruption and Organized Crime (SPAK) says the two made over 1 million euros in a corruption scheme over four years. SPAK alleges that the money was laundered through non-profit organizations controlled by his wife Ajola Xoxo from businessmen suspected of obtaining building permits by making corrupt payments to the non-profit organizations.

Alex wasn't in the action himself, but could he come to their rescue? Alex is close to Edi Rama, Albania's socialist prime minister (the most powerful position in the country, even more so than the president). The two have been photographed together dozens of times, with the first photo being in 2019 and the most recent in February of this year.

 

In other words, Alex has influence there. So much so that he has been accused of using Albania as a political laboratory, with Rama and Veliaj as the "laboratory technicians."

While unconfirmed Albanian media are speculating that the wiretaps implicating Veliaj mention Aleksin as someone who could save him and his wife.

According to the Albanian network Syri :

The MP of the Democratic Party of Albania (right-wing party), Gent Strazimiri, in an interview commented on the recent wiretaps of Erion Veliaj, emphasizing that they confirm the accusations that the opposition has been raising since 2016.

According to him, the transcripts clearly show that Veliaj asks his wife to meet with Alex Soros, implying his influence on the Albanian justice system. Strazimir stated that in Albania the law does not put you in prison, but Alex makes the decisions.

He added that the justice system in the country has turned into a corrupt and politically oriented instrument. "This is not American justice, but Alex Soros' justice," he said. According to him, this situation should alarm all constitutional institutions and Albanian politics as a whole.

Similar to George Soros's interference in America's criminal justice system, the Open Society Foundations played a role in the so-called justice reform in their country, which gave the Socialist Party more power.

The transcripts cited in the quote above include references to “Aleksi,” which is Albanian for Alex. In a phone call Valiaj made to his wife a little over a week after he was arrested in February, he tells her that “when Alex comes, things will be fixed.” He also advises her to avoid the U.S. Embassy, ​​implying that this is because Donald Trump is now in charge.

Aleksi has not yet appeared publicly in Albania. He met with Prime Minister Edi Rama twice, but that was at the World Economic Forum and the Munich Security Conference.

If Valiaj and his wife mysteriously go down, we all know why.