Accused of extorting 50 million euros through a call center, GJKKO releases Merxhan Çeliku from prison

The Special Court has accepted the request of the defendant Merxhan Çeliku to replace the security measure "Prison Arrest" with "House Arrest", who is accused of being a member of a criminal group that extorted 50 million euros through call center fraud.

Top Channel journalist Anila Hoxha reports that the decision was made on November 9, 2026 by Judge Erjon Çela, who decided to accept Çeliku's request and change the security measure that was assigned to him in November 2022.

According to the GJKKO decision, Çeliku must not leave his apartment, and his immediate release from the detention facility has been ordered, unless he is being held there for another security measure or sentence.

How did the fraud scheme work?

The criminal scheme was uncovered in November 2022, during an international operation coordinated by Eurojust, Europol and the Spanish authorities, in cooperation with SPAK.

According to the investigation, the criminal group, linked to the so-called "Milton Group", had set up a network of 15 call center companies in Albania, North Macedonia, Ukraine and Georgia. Through them, citizens of various European countries were offered investment opportunities on online platforms, mainly in the cryptocurrency market.

Call center employees contacted victims via phone calls and introduced themselves as financial intermediaries, convincing them to initially invest small amounts of money, with the promise of significant profits. As citizens believed the offers and transferred increasingly larger amounts, the money was appropriated by the criminal group.

The economic damage caused by this scheme is suspected to exceed 50 million euros, while thousands of European citizens have fallen prey to the fraud.

Merxhan Çeliku was arrested in the United Arab Emirates after being declared an international wanted person. According to the investigation, he had communicated directly with the victims through fraudulent platforms, while the damage attributed to his activity was estimated at 6.1 million euros.

In February 2024, SPAK sent five people for trial, including Merxhan Çeliku, Adrian Korriku, Irisa Puca, Endri Bulku and Erlind Cekaj, for the criminal offenses of computer fraud within the framework of a structured criminal group.

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