Back and forth: Commission travels to Dubai and finds no money from Expo 2020

Three employees of the Ministry of Economy spent a week in Dubai searching for the missing money from the ministry’s account for Expo 2020. The money was not found, the BRRD learned from a source in the UAE. The secondees, however, have returned with evidence that over BGN 120,000 have been allocated to the public. have been withdrawn from the account in cash instead of being transferred to Bulgaria.

The suspicions go to Dimitar Alexandrov Dimitrov, who is a longtime commercial attaché in Dubai. He is the son of Alexander Dimitrov, a former ambassador to Ukraine and a state security agent alias “Yanko“. As an employee of the Ministry of Economy, Dimitrov is the only person who had the power of attorney to dispose of the account.

It is about the money from the sales of vials, cosmetics, souvenirs and Bulgarian food products in the Bulgarian pavilion at Expo 2020, which were accumulated in an account at Emirates NBD Bank. The Commission was sent to search for them after a publication of the BRRD that the money was missing, and documents with false content were presented to the Ministry of Economy in order to cover up the theft.

The bank statements available to the BRRD show how about 245,000 people will be able to lose their lives. dirhams (over BGN 120,000) were withdrawn in cash during the Ministry of Kornelia Ninova.

After the association “Bulgaria EXPO 2020” began to search for them and filed a civil lawsuit, Ninova’s ministry defended itself by sending to court false bank statements and a fake payment order received from Dimitar Dimitrov. They bear the seal of the Ministry “True to the original”. This does not make the documents more credible, but rather involves the ministry in the fraud.

Back and forth

Asked about the fate of this amount, Economy Minister Nikola Stoyanov said the following, quoted by Mediapool:

“It was these 100,000 leva that were found a few weeks ago. They were transferred to Bulgaria, stayed for a while on the account to which they were transferred, then they were sent back to Dubai. We do not know what the reason is, because the account is not ours, we are not holders to be able to operate with it. But we have handed over all the documents to the competent authorities, the money has not disappeared. They migrated to the account in Dubai from the Bulgarian account for unknown reasons.”

Then he became entangled in explanations for some irregular power of attorney:

“First they were lost for a long time, it was not clear where they were, they found themselves, there they were in their account. There was some problem with the signature of one of the previous ministers and the bank did not consider the power of attorney he gave to be legitimate. They found themselves, it’s okay, the power of attorney is legit“

“We know the money was only here, then it went back to our account in Dubai. In this regard, I have taken action. We send employees who there on the spot to clarify there with the bank on what grounds the money was returned, “ said Stoyanov.

However, this claim is highly controversial, as the Bulgarian Development Bank has issued a document for the account of the association DZZD Bulgaria EXPO 2020, which shows that no money has come from Dubai there.

What’s more, the damage deepened as the three seconded employees traveled back and forth to Dubai and spent travel and subsistence without finding any trace of the money.

However, they returned with documents provided by the bank Emirates NBD, which confirm that the missing amount was withdrawn several times in cash.

The only one who was authorized to operate the account is our sales representative Dimitar Dimitrov, who was also the director of the Bulgarian pavilion at Expo 2020. He has not yet been recalled from his post in the Emirates.

The BRRD tried to obtain official information about the results of the deployment of the searchers in Dubai. We were able to contact the Secretary General of the Ministry of Economy Emilia Yaneva. However, she deflected the conversation, arguing that she was in a meeting. Our attempt to contact her a few hours later proved unsuccessful.

So far, apart from the minister’s explanations, the only official information on the case is a written response from Emilia Yaneva, which says that “the investigative bodies are carrying out the relevant inspections within the deadlines set by the PPC. The Ministry of Economy and Industry is fully assisting in clarifying the case in order to protect the state interest.”

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