2024-08-16 10:39:06
Accused and wanted are Rumen Gaitanski and the former head of BBR Stoyan Mavrodiev
A former judge was arrested in connection with the investigation into the BGN 148.5 million loan granted by the BBR to the Roadway Construction company in 2019. This became clear on Thursday, when prosecutors Deyan Zahariev and Desislava Petrova spoke on the subject.
Emil Georgiev was detained for 24 hours and charged as an aide to Rumen Gaitanski-Valka for embezzlement on a particularly large scale. He is representing “Rodway Construction”, which used the money from the loan and did not return it.
Gaitanski is accused as an instigator, and the former executive director of BBR Stoyan Mavrodiev – as a perpetrator of the misappropriation of the money from the loan. They have not been charged personally. The prosecutor’s office has no information on the whereabouts of the businessman and the former deputy and head of the state bank. They are wanted. Unofficially, they are said to be out of the country.
“We are talking about embezzlement on a particularly large scale, for which the law stipulates from 10 to 20 years in prison and confiscation of part or all of the property. Evidence of complicity of other individuals from the BBR is still being collected. It is not excluded that accusations of money laundering will also be brought”, prosecutor Zahariev pointed out.
BBR granted the loan to “Roadway Construction” in June 2019. With the money, the company controlled by Rumen Gaitanski bought the shares of “Road Construction Engineering” AD, which is owned by another of his companies – “Bio Mining”. Roadway transferred the money from the loan to Bio Mining, and Bio Mining granted a loan to Crystal Water AD. This company is owned by Gaitanski’s wife and is the guarantor of the loan granted by Targovska banka D to TPP Varna. After BBR disburses the BGN 148 million, “Crystalna Voda” repays the obligations of Ahmed Dogan’s thermal power plant with part of it.
The collateral for the loan to BBR is fictitious,
the investigation revealed. A contract of “Road Construction Engineering” for the supply of materials was presented, but it was terminated a week after it was signed. Thus, the loan remains unsecured and is written off as uncollectible.
With the money from the Roadway Construction loan, Gaitanski bought expensive cars, some of which were seized by the investigators on Wednesday, the Anti-Corruption Commission pointed out a week ago.
The signatures under the loan agreement between BBR and Roadway Construction are Stoyan Mavrodiev as the director of the bank and Ivan Georgiev as representing the company.
It was founded a few months before the loan was granted and formally has nothing to do with Rumen Gaitanski-Valka. “Roadway Construction” is owned by “Kamenni Fraksii” EOOD, which since 2021 is owned by Ivan Georgiev. The headquarters of most of his companies are in the offices of Gaitanski’s companies. According to the Anti-Corruption Commission, all the companies under investigation for the BBR loan are under its control.
Ivan Georgiev was a judge in the Sofia District Court until 2016. For a short time he was also the spokesman of the Union of Judges.
Then he submitted an application to the SJC to leave the system and became a lawyer and businessman.
In the court cases against the order to demolish Gaitanski’s shed next to the Iskar Dam, Ivan Georgiev was the lawyer of Bio Mining. The procedure was stopped by the company “Forest Troll”, which claimed that “Bio Mining” owed them money for construction activities. The owner of “Forest Troll” Miroslav Parvanov is a partner with Ivan Georgiev in another company – for wine production.
“I call on the politicians not to interfere in our work”, said prosecutor Desislava Petrova in connection with the statements from Wednesday and Thursday that the prosecutor’s office did not act on signals about the credit of Gaitanski 4 and acted on command along with the conflict in the DPS.
In fact, the investigation began in October 2022 on a tip from the BBI. The prosecutor begins to look for a crime of office. Assigns it to GDBOP. From there, they suggested that it be transferred to an investigator at the city prosecutor’s office, and that was done. On May 5, 2023, the case was closed because there was no evidence of an official crime, prosecutor Desislava Petrova said. The appellate prosecutor’s office confirmed the decree, but the Supreme Court sent it back for further investigation because gaps were found – connections between the companies involved were not investigated and no evidence of misappropriation of the money was sought. Thus, the case is returned to the same prosecutor who terminated it in order to continue the work. This is happening in January this year. It was again assigned to an investigator, but after the changes to the Anti-Corruption Commission Act, it was given to their inspector. Before the action on Wednesday, witnesses were questioned, including in front of a judge, but Gaitanski, Mavrodiev and Ahmed Dogan were not among them.