Lorer’s apartment with a private elevator like Tsvetanov’s

The overpriced apartment of Daniel Lorer in the office building at 3 Chataldzha Street is actually a maisonette with a total area of 234 sq.m. and a private elevator to the underground parking. The configuration is similar to the case of Tsvetan Tsvetanov from Apartmentgate. Lorer bought his luxury property, already renovated, for only 768 euros per square meter. For comparison, Tsvetanov acquired his famous apartment three years before Minister Lorer for 625 euros per square meter. In both cases, there are obviously simulated trades. Daniel Lorer claims that he invested a lot of money in repairs in order to sell the maisonette a year later for 4,000 euros per square meter. According to BIRD sources, this is not true, and Lorer acquired the property after it had already been renovated by the company STV Consulting. A check by BIRD showed that the luxury apartment is listed as an “office” both in the building permit and in Act 16 issued at the end of 2020. Separately, there is evidence that Assen Vassilev also used a property of his former company “STV Consulting” in the same building, but he did not declare this fact. As revealed by BIRD, the entire building at 3 Chataldzha Street was bought by businesswoman Svetoslava Arnaudova, known as the “Queen of Vignettes”. She paid BGN 1.86 million for Daniel Lorer’s apartment and BGN 3.1 million for all other premises in the building, including the underground garage, gym, offices and land. The high price, the involvement of political figures and the nature of Arnaudova’s business, which depends on the state, caused a political scandal in parliament. The fact that Vassilev is still the owner of an offshore company, in violation of the law, was also on the agenda. After two days of silence, the first comments from Vassilev and Lorer came, but they raised new questions. Vassilev does not comment on his offshore company at all, but extensively talks about his relationship with STV Consulting and how this company bought and reconstructed the building on Svetlana Street. “Chataldzha” with a mortgage bank loan.

“Take care of the thuja in the garden”

“In May 2021, I left the company and this ended my participation in STV Consulting EOOD, which is also evident from the Commercial Register,” says Asen Vassilev. But he retained financial and economic ties with the company “STV Consulting“ Ltd. long after he formally left it by selling it for BGN 99. to his collaborator Mario Sotirov.

In a short video posted on Assen Vassilev’s Facebook profile, he says: “Today I had decided to take care of the thuja in the garden…“. Vassilev was standing in the yard of the building on ul. “Chataldzha” 3. The date is 22.04.2023 The video is the formal proof that at least until the spring of 2023, Asen Vassilev uses this property. The office of We Continue the Change is located there, but since 2022, Vassilev has furnished part of one of the offices as a home.

At the time of the video (April 22, 2023), the offices and the garden with the thuja belong to STV Consulting EOOD and by law the use of someone else’s real estate must be declared. Assen Vassilev has not complied with this requirement in any of his declarations as a minister and MP. This is not the only violation of the Finance Minister. According to documents in the Commercial Register, he is still the owner of an offshore company. And so far, he has avoided any explanations on this topic, although it is hardly very difficult to obtain a document that he has terminated all relations with the offshore company within the legal period.

Дума срещу документ: Според Търговския регистър Асен Василев продължава да има офшорка. Той отрича

In his position on the “Vinetkagate” scandal, Assen Vassilev appears to be well aware of the construction activities of “STV Consulting” and its financing after completing his participation in the company, but continues to pour thuja on it.

Винетките на Промяната

Assen Vassilev publicly stated that the company had taken out a loan of BGN 2.9 million. to buy and reconstruct the building. The rest of the loan was repaid with the sale of the offices. But this is not entirely true. There are actually two loans. STV Consulting acquired the building on 19.06.2019 with a mortgage loan from Pro Credit Bank for BGN 2,640,370.5. /and not for 2.9 million/. The seller is the company “Arco Iris”, the price is 1,858,038.5 BGN. and Asen Vassilev becomes a joint debtor together with the company. As he himself explains, the difference of BGN 800,000. between the price of the property and the bank loan taken out is to finance the reconstruction and repair of the building. The joint mortgage of STV Consulting and Assen Vassilev was deleted a few months after he took office as caretaker minister. That is, until the moment of deletion, he has not completely terminated his relations with the company. The mortgage was not declared by Vassilev in his introductory declaration – against liabilities it was noted “I have nothing to declare”. The situation was settled after STV Consulting concluded another mortgage loan with Eurobank for BGN 2,937,657 on 28.04.2021. And on 13.07.2021 (Vassilev is already a caretaker minister) the mortgage to Pro Credit Bank was deleted. The document from the Property Register does not reflect the material interest in the deletion, but the fee of BGN 1,320.19 is entered, from which it can be concluded that the bank has been paid the balance of the loan in the amount of BGN 1,320,190. This makes exactly half of the loan granted two years earlier. While building and repaying its loan, the company managed to accumulate debts from its usual activities, as evidenced by the annual financial statements. Currently, STV Consulting has filed for bankruptcy after an American citizen managed to freeze its accounts.

Office apartment with private elevator

Daniel Lorer, on the other hand, moves into the so-called. “office” on the fourth floor of str. at the end of 2021, after he was already a minister. The deal by which he acquired the luxury home was concluded with Vassilev’s former company on April 6, 2022 for a very modest BGN 351,950. or 768 euros per sq.m.

For comparison, Tsvetan Tsvetanov acquired his elevator penthouse in the luxurious building of Arteks through exchanges and an additional payment for about 627 euros, but this happened three years before Lorer. The price at which Assen Vassilev’s former company sold this property to Minister Daniel Lorer is definitely lower than the market price. At the same time as Lorer, his wife, who is currently the head of Asen Vassilev’s cabinet, became a co-owner of the property.

This means that there is a simulated deal with a political person to the detriment of the company!

On the other hand, the resale of the apartment for 4059 euros per sq.m. only a year later is at an inflated price. This is confirmed by none other than Assen Vassilev, who claims that STV Consulting has sold the remaining offices of the “Queen of Vignettes” at a “market price” of 2411 euros per sq.m. Essential for the scandal, which became known as “Vignettegate”, is the discrepancy between Lorer’s claims that he invested almost hundreds of thousands for the renovation of the office apartment after acquiring it. Two independent BIRD sources claim that the home was already renovated when Lorer acquired it. Whether there was such a repair is not difficult to establish if an investigation is launched into the case. By the way, Daniel Lorer also did not declare that he had used someone else’s property for a period of several months – from the end of 2021 to the purchase of the fourth and attic floors in April 2022 . However, this fact became known only in 2023, when the Commission publishes the list of violators without much noise.

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