2024-08-15 08:16:19
Rumen Gaitanski’s life today, like Vasil Bozhkov’s 5 years ago – they search offices, take away expensive cars, and they – abroad
Rumen Gaitanski-Valka, who was considered untouchable until months ago, fell under the law in the same way as it happened nearly 5 years ago with Vasil Bozhkov-Cherepa. Then the gambling boss fled to Dubai, and on Monday it became clear that the king of garbage is also abroad, as well as the former head of the Bulgarian Development Bank and financial supervision Stoyan Mavrodiev.
“24 Chasa” looked for him on two of the phone numbers we have, but one was switched off, and on the other, an unknown male voice simply announced: Error!
Today, Bozhkov is on trial in one of the cases against him, but
the problems for Gaitanski are just beginning
On Wednesday, prosecutors and inspectors of the Commission for Combating Corruption (KPK) entered the offices and residences of the businessman, who is close to the honorary chairman of the DPS, Ahmed Dogan. Premises used by Stoyan Mavrodiev were also searched. (See about him below.)
With the permission of the court, the prosecutor’s office seized three luxury cars from Valka’s addresses – “Bugatti”, “Rolls-Royce” and “Mercedes”. 5 more cars are being sought. Similarly, in February 2020, Bozhkov’s cars were seized.
A week ago, the KPK announced that they were investigating how BGN 148.5 million, granted by BBR as a loan to Roadway Construction in June 2019, was spent. The money was given for the purchase of Road Construction Engineering, which was then owned by company “Bio Mining”, controlled by Gaitanski. At that time, the director of the bank was Stoyan Mavrodiev. However, the loan was not returned, and the money was used to pay off the debts of the Varna thermal power plant with owner Ahmed Dogan, buy cars, and some of them were withdrawn as a dividend from Gaitanski. Meanwhile, “Bio Mining” also built a hotel near the Iskar dam, which turned out to be illegal.
In practice, Gaitanski took a loan for a strange transaction – a company controlled by him to buy a company owned by another company under his control
Instead of creating jobs and developing business with the money, it was used for other purposes, and the collateral was fictitious, it became clear from a KPK announcement. This is a contract of “Road Engineering” for the supply of materials. It was signed in 2018 and terminated a week later. And after a year, it was presented as a guarantee that the loan to “Rodway Construction” would be returned, which never happened.
Shortly after the money was absorbed, Crystal Water, a company again under the control of Gaitanski, received a loan of BGN 30 million from Bio Mining. And KPK says that all companies are managed by Gaitanski, who is also the owner of “Bio mining”. Crystal Water is owned by his wife Asya Hristova, and Roadway Construction is owned by lawyer Ivan Georgiev, a former judge in the Sofia District Court, a check of “24 Hours” in the Commercial Register showed.
Crystal Water, for example, was first a guarantor of a loan given to the Varna TPP by Targovska banka D. However, with BGN 30 million from the BBR loan, Gaitanski’s company paid off the plant’s debt in question.
As of the date of granting the loan, the principal of the bank is the Ministry of Economy. In 2022, the regular government of Kiril Petkov moved the BBR to the Ministry of Innovation and Growth.
Then the largest loans granted by BBR were also announced, and the data was sent to the prosecutor’s office, but nothing followed.
At the same time, Gaitansky’s business prospered. His garbage collection companies
have contracts for garbage removal throughout the country
Joint-stock companies controlled by him participate in consortia with contracts worth hundreds of millions with state institutions and municipalities for construction. He even managed to stop the procedure of demolishing the illegal sarai next to the Iskar dam through the court. At the beginning of the month, however, the Southwest State Enterprise terminated the contract of “Bio Mining” for joint activity, because of which the huge villa by the dam was built.
Mavrodiev rose as an economic blade in 2009 and fell 11 years later with a bunch of scandals
Stoyan Mavrodiev became one of GERB’s faces in economic policy when he was elected as an MP in 2009. Before that, the lawyer was in private business – he worked as a legal and tax consultant at “Pricewaterhouse Bulgaria”, and then he founded the consulting firm “United Consulting”.
In 2010, Mavrodiev became the head of the Financial Supervision Commission, after introducing changes to the law, with which the members of the commission were replaced ahead of schedule. Seven years later, he is already at the head of BBR, and in 2020 he was dismissed from his post together with the entire board of directors of the bank, as the reason for which a loan was granted to a company with modest income. During this time, he became famous as one of the best paid people in the civil service with a monthly salary of BGN 36,211.
Mavrodiev also made headlines in connection with his involvement as a witness in the case against Evelin Banev – Brendo, as well as in connection with the lists of visitors of the head of KTB Tsvetan Vassilev, published in the media, before the bank went bankrupt. Mavrodiev himself claims that the information presented about him is biased or is media speculation.
During the time he was at the BBR, Mavrodiev had a number of “clashes” with publications in the media issued by Ivo Prokopiev. It comes to cases that Mavrodiev files for defamation. In 2019, he won one of them. In the same year, Prokopiev condemned Mavrodiev for untrue and shameful statements. In 2024, a journalist from “Capital”, convicted in 2019 for defamation on Mavrodiev’s complaint, won the case in the European Court of Human Rights.