Albanians Rally for Action on Ponzi Schemes

TIRANA, Albania — About 2,500 Albanians answered a call by opposition leaders Sunday and streamed into the center of the capital to demand that the government reimburse them for money lost in pyramid schemes.

Riot police blocking the streets around Tirana’s Skanderbeg Square beat opposition leaders and protesters with their batons. Some protesters were thrown into police vans.

More than 15% of Albania’s 3.2 million people have been taken in by pyramid schemes, which have sprouted in post-Communist Eastern Europe. Two of 10 fictitious finance and charity organizations in Albania collapsed last week.

The Interior Ministry denied that anyone was hurt in the clashes and accused opposition leaders of hitting police officers and using red ink to fake injury and attract the sympathy of foreign media.

Opposition leaders have accused some of the pyramid-scheme companies of financing the ruling Democrats’ campaign for May 1996 elections, when they won 122 of the 140 seats in parliament.

President Sali Berisha has denied government involvement. He promised Saturday that people who lost money in the schemes will be offered private and public jobs as well as bank credits to start private businesses.