From the Pandora Files came out coordinator of ITN, banker of FIB, “red” businessmen and… Sofia Municipality

Today, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has updated its database with the first portion of names released in the global investigation, the Pandora Files. The names of over 15,000 companies, foundations and trusts and their owners and managers have been published. There are dozens of Bulgarians among them. The offshore companies related to Bulgaria are registered in the British Virgin Islands. Among the new names are a coordinator of “There is such a people”, businessmen associated with the groups of the Transition, bankers, lawyers of famous entrepreneurs and even a distributor of Belarusian vodka in Russia, registered in Sofia Municipality, a check of the BIRD.BG showed. One of the interesting new faces is
Ignat Sergiev Chakarov
, born in 1946, who in the ICIJ database contacts the offshore companies MINYON HOLDINGS LIMITED and GAIL Invest Limited. At the dawn of the Transition, Chakarov registered a joint-stock company “Invest Group” AD in hotel “Orbita”, office 415, together with Krasimir Georgiev, known from the affairs “Frontier”. In the same office of hotel “Orbita” a year later was registered the company “Alfa-93” Ltd. of Stoil Slavov, founder of the SIC group and Bozhidar Brusev (former head of TD of the State Reserve in Sofia). Other prominent partners of Chakarov from those years were Nikolay Valkanov from Minstroy and the son of the communist leader Stanko Todorov. Ignat Chakarov, however, is contacting more than one offshore company, a check of the BRRD showed, and at least one of them is also operating in Russia. The attempt to contact Mr. Chakarov through his son, who is the owner of an IT company in the United States, did not receive feedback until the publication of the article. Petar Ignatov, born in 1959, who has Bulgarian and Russian citizenship, is another interesting figure. He is a former partner of arms dealer Dobrin Ivanov in the company “DP”, related to the interests of MP Delyan Peevski in the Dunarit affair. Ignatov is present in the Pandora Files with the offshore companies MEXFORD ENTERPRISES LIMITED, I&P LIMITED, BASSMORE LIMITED and CS Construction Solutions International Ltd. Dobrin Ivanov is also known to be the owner of the party television of GERB TV Europe. Another ICIJ investigation called FinCen Files revealed that the arms company Transmobile, owned by Dobrin Ivanov, received large sums from an offshore company related to money laundering in the Magnitsky scheme. The coordinator of the PP “There is such a people” in Cyprus, Dimo Marinov Mladenov , was also included in the “Pandora Papers” with his company MARCELL OVERSEAS LIMITED, registered in the British Virgin Islands in 2014 this offshore company. Attorney-at-law Yavor Nedev Kamburov is the owner of TRANS STOCK INVESTMENT LTD, registered in the British Virgin Islands by Alcogal, which until 22.04.2016 was the owner of “TULEX ESTATE” EOOD, and Yavor Kamburov was a procurator. The same company appeared earlier in the Panama Papers. Kamburov is in the Management Board of EUROPEAN RETAIL INVESTMENT S.A., sole owner of “AP Mart” EAD, in which since 21.07.2014 procurators are
Angel Ivanov Angelov
(the group “Gradus”) and Petar Tsvetanov Dudolenski. “AP Mart” EAD is the sole owner of “PICCADILLY” EAD with accumulated over BGN 22 million liabilities to the NRA.

Ognyan Lyudmilov Tomov is the owner of OG CAPITAL LIMITED, registered in the British Virgin Islands by Fidelity, but no information can be found in the Commercial Register. No beneficial owner of another offshore has been declared DARLISTON CONSULTANCY LIMITED from the British Virgin Islands, which owns the Bulgarian “OG CAPITAL” Ltd., in which Ognyan Tomov is a manager.The member of the Board of Directors of the Rotary Club of Bankya, Lachezar Tsankov Krastev, is associated with the offshore company TRADIS CONSULTING LIMITED. Chairman of this Rotary Club (and member of the Sofia Rotary Club) is the former head of the Road Infrastructure Agency Svetoslav Glosov. Members are also the daughter and son of Svetoslav Glosov – Diana and Apostol Glosovi, who have arranged to implement a project for over BGN 8 million. under a contract awarded by Hassan Azis in Kardzhali. The other faces of this narrow bankyan circle also do not seem to be accidental.

FIB’s longtime cadre
Evtim Stoychev Ormanov
, former Director of the Bank’s Liquidity Directorate, according to an investigation by the
Bivol
, also has an offshore NYQUILLA DEVELOPMENTS LIMITED. It is associated with the scandalous deal for Kremikovtzi, financed by loans from FIB. The investigation showed that instead of repaying their loans, the borrower companies have given multimillion-dollar loans to other offshore companies and one of them is Ormanov’s NYQUILLA. Another offshore company with a loan of EUR 15 000 000 from FIB is FRIESIAN CONSULTANTS LIMITED of Nikolay Binev, which also appears in the Pandora Files. Paradoxically, in the Pandora Files comes the address of the Sredets district of Sofia Municipality, where the Bulgarian of Moldovan origin Dmitry Todorov Gagauz is registered. He is the owner of the offshore ADG Capital Ltd . and has indicated as address Lege 6 Sofia 1000. By law, Bulgarian citizens who do not have a permanent address in Bulgaria are registered ex officio in the Sredets region.

It turns out that Legge’s address can also serve as the address of offshore companies that run a multimillion-dollar alcohol business. In this case, ADG Capital Ltd. is the owner of a Russian company that, together with the Belarusian holding company Minsk Kristal, sells Belarusian vodka to Russia and plans to expand in China and other markets, according to the Pandora-Files documents. Young Gagauz with Bulgarian citizenship seems to be a straw of the real owners. The data published by ICIJ are partial, explicitly emphasized in the announcement of the consortium. They are only from two intermediaries for registration of offshore companies: Alcogal and Fidelity. BIRD.BG is ICIJ’s partner in the investigation and continues to examine information on nearly 200 Bulgarian citizens or living in Bulgaria who appear in the Pandora-Files. The Bulgarian politicians in the Pandora Files revealed so far are
Delyan Peevski
, Nikolay
Mladenov
,
Nikolay Barekov
, and
Arben Khavalyov
. The investigation of the BIRD.BG also revealed the secret offshore companies of the owners of First Investment Bank
Tseko Minev and Ivaylo Mutafchiev
, who over the years have received loans worth 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. After the outbreak of the Pandora Files scandal, several Bulgarian institutions, including the NRA, promised to investigate the persons with offshore companies, but the only publicly known action so far is the habituation of Delyan Peevski to the State Agency for National Security. It is noteworthy that the Bulgarian Magnitsky list, prepared by the Ministry of Finance, has not yet been expanded with Peevski’s new offshore companies, which jumped out of Pandora. There is also no lawyer Alexander Angelov, to whom Peevski has transferred two offshore companies.  

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