Hemusgate: Bum Withdrew $18 Million and Died

The destitute Krasimir Dimitrov Mitrikov from the village of Zlatia near Montana managed to withdraw over BGN 18 million from the money for Lot 5 of Hemus Motorway, after which he died of covid. For his services were promised 20,000 levs, which he did not receive, an investigation by the BRRD and Zov News found. Sofia and MMA fighter Georgi Stefanov Shkendov has withdrawn over 11 million on behalf of two other companies.

In the first part of our investigation , we revealed two politically connected parties who had withdrawn huge sums of cash from the money for Hemus Motorway. These are Toma Georgiev Yankov from Mezdra, head of the youth structure of MRF and Danail Naydenov Georgiev from Lom – leader of the list of PP “Euroroma” in the Danube city. They had powers of attorney to operate with the accounts of two companies registered to destitute persons and received BGN 25 million out of a total of BGN 56 million transferred as an advance to Water Construction – Blagoevgrad AD by the state-owned Avtomagistrali EAD. In order to cover the traces, the money went through a buffer company – “Bul Stroy Group IG”, which was owned by Metodi Bachev, the late head of the construction company “Agromah”.

A total of 5 shell companies and four proxies were used in the scheme. In addition to the already famous “Pro Building Group” Ltd. and “Leventa 90”, the companies Vindor Montana EOOD, Building Conti Stroy EOOD and Rich Building Stroy EOOD participate in the draining of the millions.

It is noteworthy that the same lawyers have served the entries for the three companies in the Commercial Register. Approached for comment, they explained that they receive sets of documents for registration from their client and referred us to an accounting company that has offices in Lom and Sofia. A Zov News reporter contacted the owner of the accounting firm, but she could not remember who came with the documents for the registration and transfer of the companies – phantoms. “We don’t want their ID cards,” she said.

The company “Vindor Montana” has a history and is registered in Plovdiv, but in 2020 it was transferred to Nina Evgenieva Todorinova from Kostinbrod. Nina Todorinova did not respond to our request for comment via Facebook.

The proxy of “Vindor Montana” is Krasimir Mitrikov, who was registered in the village of Zlatia, Montana region. He has withdrawn the impressive amount of BGN 18,618,077. and handed them over to the unknown man, in whom all the money withdrawn at a cash desk from International Asset Bank was concentrated. A Zov News reporter searched for him at his address, where there is only an old, unlivable collapse. From Mitrikov’s neighbor, we learned that he lived extremely poor and died this year from Covid. Before that, however, he boasted to the neighbors that he expected to pay him 20,000 leva.

The other two companies Building Conti Stroy EOOD and Rich Building Stroy EOOD, which were established by Yaroslav Stamatov Iliev from the village of Kazichene, and Building Conti was transferred on 22.07.2021 to Tihomir Milanov Ignatov from the village of Ohrid, Montana region. We were unable to find contact details. Our team visited the address of Tihomir Ignatov in the village of Ohrid, but his house there is visibly uninhabited.

The proxy of the two companies, who has withdrawn a total of BGN 11,242,408. At cash desk is named Georgi Stefanov Shkendov. He is a descendant of the famous in the 80s gambling player Stefan Shkendov. Shkendov – father is said to be one of the richest gamblers in Sofia and played in the company of Ivo Karamanski, Vasil Bozhkov – The Skull, and other persons with sonorous nicknames. Because of the illegal gambling at that time, they were all monitored by the State Security.

Shkendov Jr. is an MMA fighter and has several companies in his name that have modest turnovers. A BRRD reporter tried to contact him first through his mother, who works at the Customs Agency. She said that Georgi Shkendov does not use a phone and will hand over for the call, and if he wants he will contact us. We also searched for it unsuccessfully at an address in Sofia.

Shkendov’s sister Irena is also a public figure. She is a co-founder of the Eurasian Institute of Geopolitics and Economics “St. Plamen Miletkov, but in 2019 he left the leadership and is no longer a member of the organization. In 2020, Irena Shkendova applied for the position of junior information security expert at the Ministry of Defense, but there is no information on whether she was appointed there.

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