Lyubena and Petyo The Euro are getting divorced. Transfer properties for millions to Harsev

Petyo Evroto and Lyubena Petrova are in divorce and transfer expensive properties to a company of financier Emil Harsev. He claimed that this was under a trust agreement. But multimillion-dollar deals raise doubts about money laundering.

In 2020, an investigation by BIRD revealed that Lyubena Petrova had earned BGN 1.5 million from the sale of real estate, while at the same time acquiring a luxury house in Boyana for at least BGN 2 million. The value of these property acquisitions differed significantly from the officially declared income, a BRRD study found. Petrova’s name is also associated with expensive properties in the center of Thessaloniki.

Lyubena Petrova is the wife of former investigator Petyo Petrov nicknamed “The Euro”. They are the main protagonists in the “Eight Dwarfs” scandal – a scheme for extortion and takeover of business involving lawyers, senior prosecutors and thugs, revealed by industrialist Iliya Zlatanov in a series of interviews for the Anti-Corruption Fund.

He bought for $300,000 for $4 million.

In 2018, Lyubena Petrova acquired a large villa in the village of Kladnitsa. For the house at the foot of Vitosha Mountain with 430 sq.m. The young businesswoman pays 313,000 leva. There is no evidence of a mortgage or loan for the acquisition of this property.

On March 10 this year, the same property was sold by the co-owners Petyo Petrov and Lyubena Petrova for BGN 3,911,660. The buyer is the company “Mira Diva” Ltd., controlled by the financier Emil Harsev.

At the same time, “Mira Diva” acquired from the same sellers an apartment of 96 sq.m. on ul. Louis Ayer in Sofia for 645 423.9 BGN And this deal is extremely profitable for Lyubena and the Euro, as the apartment was acquired in 2016 by Lyubena for only BGN 89,582.5.

Thus, only from these two property deals, the family “justifies” over BGN 4 million, but that’s not all.

Other property acquisitions of Lyubena Petrova go through two companies: LP Logistic and BND – Build New Day. As of March 13 this year, both companies are already owned by Mira Diva Ltd. The transfer of LP Logistic’s shares amounted to 70,000 euros, while the shares of BND – Build New Day were valued at 750,000 euros.

These amounts are too modest as compared with the valuation of the real estate of LP Logistic and BND – Build New Day, described in detail in our previous investigation.

Trust or money laundering?

Contacted for comment, financier Emil Harsev replied as follows:

“Mira Diva Ltd. acquired from Mrs. Lyubena Petrova 100% of the shares of two companies in pursuance of a trust agreement concluded with a lawyer acting as a trustee of his clients under an agreement for distribution and liquidation of the family property community after the termination of a civil marriage.

The company Mira Diva Ltd., represented by me, is the ultimate owner of the entire acquired property, it is another matter that it has assumed to the contracting authority under the said trust agreement certain obligations for the manner and procedure of providing intermediate (mezzanine) financing, acquisition, payment, disposal and liquidation through the sale of the acquired property, in particular for the repayment of the intermediary property used for the acquisition of the family property to be liquidated. (mezzanine) financing.’

Harsev did not want to reveal which lawyer is a party to the trust agreement concluded by Mira Diva Ltd.

Even if all these movements are within the division of property in case of divorce, the shocking difference in property prices during their acquisition and sale is impressive, on the one hand, and on the other – the underestimated value of the shares of the companies in relation to the value of the property they own.

Over the years, other dubious financial transactions of Harsev with persons and companies with a troubled reputation have become known. For example, the guest house of former Deputy Minister Alexander Manolev, built with stolen European funds, was mortgaged against a loan from Emil Harsev’s company. Several elite properties in Sofia, associated with crypto queen Ruja Ignatova, also ended up in the patrimony of companies owned by the financier.

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