After the scandal “The Eight Dwarfs” Lyubena Petrova has earned BGN 1.5 million from the sale of real estate, while at the same time she has acquired a luxury house in Boyana for at least BGN 2 million. The deals were concluded in early October this year. The value of these property acquisitions differs 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 is the wife of former investigator Petyo Petrov nicknamed “The Euro”. They 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.
Zlatanov says that he sought help from Petyo Euro to resolve a business dispute and received it, but for a huge commission. Meetings with the Euro took place in his informal office located in the restaurant “The Eight Dwarfs”. By order of the Euro, the prosecution attacked Zlatanov’s opponents, but then he himself became a victim of the group, which took over his business and took away his property worth millions.
A key figure in the raider scheme “The Eight Dwarfs” is Lyubena Petrova – “Snow White” from “The Eight Dwarfs”. In her name, Iliya Zlatanov issued promissory notes as a guarantee for the services of the Euro and its prosecutors. Iliya Zlatanov claims that he has received death threats and is forced to hide abroad. According to him, he is not the only victim of the schemes of the Euro and his group, which has been operating for years.
Zlatanov’s exposition is confirmed documentarily, as well as by the subsequent events. The promissory note became the reason for Lyubena Petrova to seize all his properties. The thugs from Mitko Karatista’s “Delta Guard” occupy Zlatanov’s factories and do not obey even court orders, meeting full cooperation from the police.
What is the path of money and how is the income from criminal activities legalized? It seems that this is happening according to the classic scenario of property tricks, the data studied by the BRRD reveal.
The money from the “commissions” – in properties?
In 2016, still like Pavlova, the future wife of the Euro acquired from his parents an apartment of 96 sq.m. in Sofia on ul. Louis Ayer. The transfer is confessed for the symbolic 100 euros per sq. M.
In 2017, Pavlova was officially married to the former infamous investigator Petrov. m. to HPP Simeonovo. The donors seem to be relatives of Lyubena, as they have the same permanent address in Sofia.
Lyubena also acquired a large villa in the village of Kladnitsa in 2018. 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.
But the serious property deals of the family go through two companies in which Petrova is the sole owner. These are LP Logistic and BND-Build New Day.
The earlier acquisitions of “LP Logistic” are known from an investigation of Capital published in 2017, when Lyubena Pavlova appeared as a public figure with actions in defense of Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov. In parallel with her “human rights” activities, she runs a business and makes profitable property deals. In 2016, LP Logistic bought two apartments on Tsarigradsko shose Str. Svilenica, next to the already famous restaurant “The Eight Dwarfs”, serving as an office of Petyo Euro. The sellers are companies associated with Corpbank, Capital notes, and the acquisition price seems too low for market realities. For two apartments of 126 sq. m. in the central district of Sofia Petrova’s company pays only BGN 399,455. or 815 euros per sq.m. Another apartment was bought in Bansko for a much more modest amount of BGN 47,000.
But even these bargain prices are unbearable for the financial capabilities of LP Logistic, which was established in April 2014 and has not reported any activity and income for 2014 и 2015 For 2016 in the annual financial report submitted to the Registry Agency there are tangible fixed assets for BGN 212,000. and just as many duties. The difference between the declared and the cost of acquisition of the two apartments in Sofia and the one in Bansko is over BGN 230,000.
On October 9 this year, the two apartments in Sofia were sold for BGN 782,332, according to a check in the Property Register. The buyer is the company “GS River” from Plovdiv. So it turns out that either for 4 years the properties have almost doubled, or 4 years ago they were declared at simulated prices, in the classic spirit of “Apartmentgate”.
GS River is a newly established company registered in June 2020 in Plovdiv by Dimitar Kiossev. He is the owner of the companies “Rental Group” EOOD, “Pool Invest” EOOD and “Autohouse.bg” EOOD, and through the latter the joint-stock company “Haupthaus” AD. His wife and son Angel also have a solid company history and dozens of properties are listed in the name of their companies. With this patrimony, it is not a problem to finance the three property acquisitions of GS River in Sofia, for example through a loan. Three, because GS River has another very interesting deal with Lyubena.
Huge house in Boyana at a ridiculous price
In May 2020, BND – Build New Day Ltd. acquired the company GSB. It buys from their previous owners the shares of GSB, which are worth BGN 910,000. Main shareholder with 8,000 shares of BGN 100 each. is Georgi Bazovski, who owns a commodity exchange in Vratsa. According to sources, he is a former customs officer. A BRRD reporter contacted Bazovsky on his mobile phone. “I don’t think I’m that interesting to you. I don’t care, bye!” he ended the conversation after the reporter introduced himself and before listening to our questions.
The interest is justified because the deal escapes any business logic. The capital of GSB actually consists of three properties: a huge house with an area of 506 sq.m. in Boyana on Panoramic Road 30A, a neighboring house on three floors with an area of 270 sq.m. And another apartment on the boulevard. Petko Voyvoda bl. 20 with an area of 127 sq.m. Paid by “Snow White” 910 000 BGN For the company they make this transaction extremely profitable for it and unprofitable for the seller.
But that’s not all. On 09.10.2020, the above-mentioned company “GS River” bought from “GSB”, which is already owned by Lyubena Petrova, the smaller house in Boyana for BGN 860,565. This makes 1634 euros per sq.m., which is within the market prices for this area and for such a property. For “Snow White” and the Euro remain the big house and the apartment.
So, officially Lyubena Petrova counts BGN 910,000. for the three properties. He then sold one of them for 860,000. Thus, the investment is reduced to BGN 50,000. And for this modest amount she gets a house costing at least BGN 2 million and an apartment for at least BGN 200,000. In parallel with this bargain, Lyubena also collected BGN 782,332. From the two apartments on the street. “Svilenica”. The amount should be enough for new luxury furnishing of the huge house and apartment.
For the deal with GSB, a reasonable assumption can also be made that the officially declared amounts are simulative. But if the real market price of three million leva has been paid for the three properties of GSB, there is a serious discrepancy with the capabilities of BND – Build New Day. For 2019, Lyubena’s company has reported BGN 255,000 in deposits and BGN 579,000 in retained earnings, according to the data in the report submitted to the Commercial Register (not yet registered). On the other hand, the company does not have and did not have a single property to secure an official loan for the insufficient amount.
Unlike Lyubena, her husband Petyo Petrov – the Euro has not had real estate deals for many years neither in a personal capacity nor through companies. While he was an investigator, he was a co-owner with 30% in the Vratsa company “Lucky Commercial”, which in 2015 went bankrupt because of loans to CCB. After leaving the judiciary in 2015, the Euro registered as a lawyer. It was not until November 2 that he officially returned to business as a member of the board of directors of GSB.
Three establishments in Greece?
The properties listed above may be a drop in the ocean if Lyubena Petrova manages to cash the properties of Iliya Zlatanov seized by PEA in her favor in Sofia, Smolyan, Devin and Nessebar. So far, however, they have not proceeded to a public sale. BRRD contacted Iliya Zlatanov, who said that the actions of the group against him and his business continue with the support of the Prosecutor’s Office, seeking a reason to be charged.
Zlatanov’s revelations caused a strong public response and media interest in the case, but not an investigation by the prosecution, which is cited as the main protagonist in the criminal scheme. After a disputed legal battle, he managed to take possession of one of his elevator factories in Dupnitsa, but his factory in Sofia is controlled by Delta Guard. According to him, there is a looting of the assets. A whole hall has been cut for scrap, he complained in a video interview for BRRD, which will be broadcast next week.
Zlatanov also announced that he has found the traces of several expensive properties in Greece associated with Lyubena Petrova. The first is a coffee shop on the 1 Elefterio Venizelo shopping street in Thessaloniki. The name of Lyubena G(eorgieva) Petrova is associated with this address both in the telephone directory and in the public register of restaurants, where she is listed as the owner of the Ritz Café in Thessaloniki. Until 2016, the restaurant was called “Zogia”. In the 2019 Google Street photos , the old name is still visible on the sidewalk fences on the terrace in front of the restaurant.
Another address of Lyubena Petrova, for which contact information is found in the telephone directory of the Greek telecom operator OTE, is located in a very expensive location – the coastal boulevard “Leofortos Nikis” number 13, where the cafe “Ernest” is located.
The companies that run the Ernest and Ritz cafes have Greek owners and have nothing to do with Lyubena Petrova. However, they are there for rent and are not the owners of the premises, a check in the Thessaloniki Property Register showed. The inspection also found that Lyubena Petrova does not appear with her name as a property owner in Thessaloniki. But they may have been purchased in the name of companies that are controlled directly or indirectly by her.
Certainly, however, Lyubena G. Petrova cannot be present in the official phone book if she has no relation to the ownership of the addresses in question. It is found in the directory and with a third address in the city. Serres.
BRRD journalists and Greek colleagues called the numbers from the directory several times, but no one answered them. Due to the epidemiological situation, it is not possible to carry out an on-the-spot check.
Unfortunately, the Greek Commercial Register does not allow searching by the name of the owner or director of a company. Thus, the disclosure of full information about possible property acquisitions of “Snow White” in northern Greece remains hidden from the public, but it is hardly difficult for the Greek law enforcement authorities. In this case, there is a reason to carry out a check on the origin of funds. The two prestigious commercial properties in the center of Thessaloniki are valued at a minimum of 3,000 euros per sq.m. With them, the wealth of the Euro wife swells by more inexplicable millions.
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