Head of ‘Pirate’ Telecom from Transnistria Opened Bulgarian Internet Services Company

Sergei Ganja, former head of the Transnistrian Telecommunications Department and top manager of a “pirate” Internet operator from the Transnistrian holding Sheriff, had owned a Bulgarian company, a provider of IP addresses in Europe and Moldova.

As early as 2017, Ganja’s company provided an IP address to the Moldovan government vacation resort IT-Relax. This happened at the exact time when the RISE Moldova Center for Investigative Journalism organized digital security training for journalists at the location. Then, the administration of the sanatorium told us the strange fact that it had lost control of the CCTV cameras after a change in the IP settings.

In 2021, we found confirmation that the co-owner of the Bulgarian company and of the Transnistrian telecom had been the same person. Ganja’s Ukrainian passport, with which he registered his Bulgarian IT company, helped the operation. His business partner is former Chisinau Deputy Mayor Igor Lupulchuk.

To date, Ganja has left the Bulgarian company, but continues to work for Interdnestromcom (IDK), in Transnistria, a separatist region in the Republic of Moldova with a Russian-speaking population. This is one of the largest companies in Sheriff Holding, owned by oligarch Viktor Gushan. It earns millions from illegal deliveries of mobile phone and Internet services.

“Attack” against Rise’s training

In July 2017, IT-Relax, maintained by the state-owned Moldovan company Registru, hosted a five-day training on “Modern Methods of Data Processing and Protection”.

The organizer was the Association of Investigative Reporters RISE Moldova, and the participants were journalists from RISE and a group of Moldovan colleagues from regional publications. One of the trainers was Atanas Tchobanov from Bulgaria.

Part of the exercise was to determine the IP address of the resort where the training took place.

Atanas explained that the IP address could be used to control Internet traffic through the router, which gives the Internet provider more opportunities to monitor the computers to which it provides connectivity.

“The main danger of connecting your devices to a router controlled by malicious users via the IP stream is the ability to scan all computers on this network. There is also a risk of infecting the devices with spyware, through which they can be monitored even after being disconnected from the router,” explained the trainer and showed a site through which he could check the provider of any IP address on the global net.

“This, for example, is an interesting coincidence: The Bulgarian company UE Delta Prod Ltd. from the city of Ruse provides the IP address of the holiday site we are in,” said Bulgarian journalist Tchobanov.

Then he accessed the Bulgarian Trade Register and showed the information about the owners and directors of the company: Director – Marius Christia, Co-owners – the citizen of Ukraine Sergei Ganja, the Romanians Marius Christia and Nicolae Plesha and the citizen of Moldova Igor Lupulchuk.

The person named Sergey Ganja had triggered already the interest of the journalists of RISE before this training. In February 2017, they published the article ” Direct Connection: FSB Can listen to the Whole of Ukraine through the Company of a Transnistrian Oligarch “, focused on the company Intertelecom, one of the largest mobile operators in Ukraine, controlled by Viktor Gushan, founder of the Transnistrian business empire Sheriff.

In 2000, Ganja was the director of Gushan’s Ukrainian company. After that he headed IDK, a similar company operating in Transnistria without a license from the Moldovan authorities.

Another fact turned out to be even more alarming. After realizing that the Internet traffic of our training was controlled by a company of the “main IT pirate of Transnistria”, the journalists turned to the manager of the resort. They learned that the change of the IP address was not agreed with the administration. After that, during the RISE training, the administration lost control over the surveillance cameras on the territory of IT-Relax.

Against the backdrop of this “news”, Tchobanov instructed everyone present to change their passwords, as it is simple to learn them if participants logged in to their mail or password management software while they were in the camera’s view.

Subsequently, IT-Relax sent an official letter stating that they did not have a contract with the Bulgarian company.

The letter claims that the Internet provider was the Moldovan company Repromon-TV. In turn, this company averted our questions about its cooperation with UE Delta Prod, saying that the company in question had nothing to do with network maintenance and safety.

What is known about UE Delta Prod?

The company was registered in June 2016 in Bulgaria’s Danube city of Ruse by a certain Monica Vasile, a 40-year-old Romanian citizen. Soon after, Sergei Ganja (citizen of Ukraine), Romanians Marius Cristia and Nicolae Plesha, as well as Igor Lupulchuk (citizen of Moldova) became owners of the company. In March 2019, they sold their shares to Ekaterina Vzorova, a 23-year-old Moldovan national. Two months later, she transferred the company to Chisinau-born Ion Kobzari, who is a Romanian citizen.

After Ganja and Lupulchuk left the company, the new owner Ekaterina Vzorova became its Director. She has declined talking on the phone with a journalist from RISE. In response to a message with questions about her business in Bulgaria, she replied “I don’t have time for you now, look for me in a year”. Vzorova works in a manicure salon and periodically publishes on social media her nail work achievements.

The company actually has no office. The Bulgarian colleagues who visited the address of registration of the company found only a multi-story building without any trace of housing UE Delta Prod. In fact, the company is registered at the address of an accounting firm.

Moldovan politician and businessman

Igor Lupulchuk (45) is an entrepreneur and Moldovan politician. He has worked in the field of telecommunications in Moldova in the companies Megadat.com, Accent Electronic and S&T Mold, and is still a director in Chisinau’s Nova IT Prime, which, since the first half of 2021 is deleted from the register of legal entities. Lupulchuk was also Chisinau’s Deputy Mayor and has tried his hand at politics more than once. In particular, he was a candidate for Parliament from various parties such as the Social Democrats in 2009 and the Communist Party in 2014.

We tried to obtain an explanation from Lupulchuk about his role in the business processes that connect him to Ganja. Hearing that a journalist was looking for him, the former business partner of the Transnistrian “pirate” ended the conversation and did not answer our written questions either.

Transnistrian boss of the future president

Confirmation that Sergei Ganja from the Bulgarian company and the head of the Transnistrian pirate company IDK is the same person was obtained only in 2021. This became possible by linking the personal data about Gandja in the Bulgarian Trade Register with information from sources in Transnistria, Moldova and Ukraine.

Sergei Ganja (58) had been managing IDK since 2008. In 2000, he was the Director of the Ukrainian mobile and internet operator Intertelecom, and before devoting himself to business he headed the Republican Telecommunications Department of Transnistria.

Ganja was the boss of Vadim Krasnoselski, acting President of Transnistria and a candidate for a second presidential term (elections in the self-proclaimed Transnistrian Moldovan Republic are scheduled for December 12, 2021). RISE journalists were unable to obtain comment from Ganja on his role and work with the Bulgarian company.

In February 2018, Krasnoselski awarded his former boss with the Order of Merit.

Vadim Krasnoselski, leader of the Transnistrian administration: “The developed telecommunications system is an attribute of the independent state. It is difficult to imagine Transnistria without modern means of communication, the conduit of which is Internistrom.”

Meanwhile, the Ganja-run company makes money from its Transnistrian subscribers without complying with the law in Moldova.

Interdnestromcom (IDK) is not authorized under the terms of the legislation of the Republic of Moldova to provide electronic communication services (landline telephony, mobile telephony and Internet access) on the territory of the Republic of Moldova. It is also not included in the Public Register of Network Providers for Electronic Communications. This is stated in the official response to RISE by the National Agency for Regulation of Electronic Communications and Information Technologies.

Vladimir THORIK ( RISE Moldova ), Atanas TCHOBANOV ( BIRD.bg ), Maria TUZLOVA (freelancer, Tiraspol)
Assistance to the investigation provided by Valeria EGOSHINA ( SCHEMES , Ukraine)

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