Pandora: Barekov and his wife hid an offshore

Maria Kalenderska, former journalist, political figure and wife of politician Nikolay Barekov was the owner of the offshore company Sirius Investing, the Pandora Files reveal. Kalenderska was obliged to declare this property to KPKONPI as a member of the leadership of a political party, but did not. Nikolay Barekov was also obliged to declare this property to his family, but did not declare Kalenderska’s hidden asset either to KPKONPI or to the European Parliament.

Sirius Investing is related to the ownership of the company “Investment.BG” EAD, which became famous around the house in Dragalevtsi inhabited by Nikolay Barekov. On 12.12.2013 the company acquired the property for BGN 977,915. Then the owners of “Investment.BG” were Magdalina Hristova, Tina Veselinova and Ivanka Nedelcheva.

The origin of the funds “invested” by the three young ladies is a mystery. Later, Magdalena Hristova became a member of the control board of Barekov’s party “Bulgaria Without Censorship” and Ivanka Nedelcheva acted as his personal PR.

In the spring of 2014, it became known that in this property on ul. Hazelnut Forest 79 lives the chairman of PP “Bulgaria Without Censorship” and former director of TV7 Nikolay Barekov. He then told the media that he was paying a rent of 1,000 euros for the house. This was followed by the collapse of Corpbank AD and the emergence of public information about the massive financing of TV7 and “Bulgaria Without Censorship” by the bank.

The British Virgin Islands offshore Sirius Investing was established on 09.10.2014 and on 28.10.2014 it acquired the shares of Investment.BG. The transfer of the assets of “Investment.BG” to Sirius Investing happened two months before the property in Dragalevtsi was banned by the NRA, which became a fact on 23.12.2014.

The information available in the Pandora Documents shows that as of 2016 Maria Kalenderska was the actual owner of Sirius Investing Limited. However, there is no trace of this fact in the Bulgarian Trade Register. There, the company is registered with the owner of the fiduciary company Multiservice Limited and remains so until 2019.

Sirius Investing held the shares of Investment.BG until 28.05.2019, when it endorsed them to Maria Oleva Kalenderska. The reason for this change of ownership is probably related to the deadline for declaring the beneficial owners of offshore companies in the Commercial Register. Under the Anti-Money Laundering Act, this must be done before 31 May 2019.

Meanwhile, while she was the owner of Sirius Investing, Kalenderska became an official partner in the life of former MEP Nikolay Barekov, with whom she had children. This obliges him to declare his wife’s assets, but Sirius Investing does not reveal any of his property declarations to KPKONPI.

BRRD contacted Maria Kalenderska by phone and asked a question about the ownership of the offshore company Sirius Investing and why it has not been declared by her or her husband over the years. Kalenderska asked for time to collect documents for the case and show them to a reporter of our media at a personal meeting. There was no such meeting, as Barekov’s wife stopped answering our calls.

After the post, Maria Kalenderska reacted through her Facebook profile. In her comment, she did not deny that she was the owner of the offshore company. Kalenderska claims that she and her companies do not have bank accounts abroad.

The Pandora Files – politicians and relatives

The Pandora Files contains data from 14 offshore registration and maintenance companies whose files have been leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). To study this array of nearly 12 million documents, the consortium brought together 600 journalists from around the world for a global investigation called the Pandora-Files. BIRD.BG is the Bulgarian partner in this investigation, which is the largest coordinated cooperation of investigative journalists to date.

Publications in more than 150 media outlets around the world began on Oct. 3 and reveal secret deals and hidden assets of more than 330 politicians and high-ranking government officials, including 35 state leaders from more than 90 countries and territories.

Among the current and former leaders illuminated by the investigation are King Abdullah II of Jordan, the prime ministers of Côte d’Ivoire and the Czech Republic, the presidents of Ukraine, Ecuador, Kenya and Gabon, close to President Putin, former presidents of El Salvador, Panama, Paraguay and Honduras, former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and many others.

The Bulgarian politicians whose names appear directly in the Pandora Files are two:
Delyan Peevski
and
Nikolay Mladenov
. In addition, the files include large financiers, lawyers, individuals associated with multimillion-dollar fraudulent schemes, but also entrepreneurs with regular business, with no visible political protections, who have registered offshore companies and have announced them to the Bulgarian authorities.

BIRD.BG has already revealed the secret offshore companies of the owners of First Investment Bank
Tseko Minev and Ivaylo Mutafchiev
, who over the years have received loans for over a billion levs from their own bank. Their offshore companies have also been used in schemes for racketeering the business with final beneficiary Delyan Peevski.

The example of Barekov and his wife is indicative that among about 200 Bulgarians with offshore companies in the Pandori Files there are relatives or dummies of politicians.

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