Lyubena Petrova closes Ritz in Thessaloniki

The Ritz café in the center of Thessaloniki is no longer working, a BRRD check found. Last summer, the Ritz was owned by Lyubena Petrova, Petyo Evroto’s wife, who became famous for the “Eight Dwarfs” case.

The restaurant on the Eleftherio Venizelo No. 1 shopping street in Thessaloniki was opened in the summer of 2021 and, in addition to coffee and refreshing drinks, offered space for art events – literary readings and exhibitions. The receipts showed the name of Lyubena Petrova, registered as a sole trader.

Currently, the Ritz is closed, but this is not due to anti-epidemic restrictions. All identification signs have been removed and the phone of the restaurant does not answer.

Lyubena Petrova was an active supporter of former Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov and the current Ivan Geshev, organizing demonstrations in support of them through her Plan B association. Lyubena and her husband Petyo Petrov , nicknamed “The Euro”, are protagonists in a scheme to extort and seize business involving lawyers, senior prosecutors and thugs, revealed by industrialist Iliya Zlatanov in a series of interviews for the Anti-Corruption Fund.

Petrova’s “human rights” activity has obviously been monetized well. In addition to the Ritz, Petrova’s name is associated with two other restaurants – the expensive location on the coastal boulevard “Leofortos Nikis” number 13, where the cafe “Ernest” is located, as well as a restaurant in the town of Smolyan. Serres.

The two prestigious commercial properties in the center of Thessaloniki are valued at a minimum of 3,000 euros per square meter, but this is not the entire patrimony of Lyubena Petrova. In Bulgaria, it has also accumulated properties worth hundreds of thousands of levs, an investigation by the BRRD showed.

So far, there is no evidence that the Prosecutor’s Office is checking the origin of the funds for these acquisitions. Former investigator Petyo Evroto was named by Prime Minister Kiril Petkov as one of the main actors of corruption in Bulgaria and entered the list of 19 people handed over to Chief Prosecutor of the Republic of Bulgaria. Prosecutor Ivan Geshev. Petkov pointed out that Geshev is the 20th on the list.

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This post is also available in: Български (Bulgarian)