Peevski & Prosecutor’s Office against Dunarit – 0 : 4

It can be said without exaggeration that for 7 years the successful (un)young MRF-MP Delyan Peevski tried his best to swallow Dunarit – one of the most successful and profitable enterprises in Bulgaria. It was evident that he firmly believes in the following – the arms factory belongs to him by right as part of the “legacy” of CCB. In other words, after the discord with his former “spiritual father” Tsvetan Vassilev, the MRF MP expected to gobble up Dunarit – the way he got his hands on, for example, Technomarket (and not only). Of course, in this endeavor, he relied heavily on “full support” (in words Domuschievsky) from various regulators and state bodies – and especially from his first-class, centralized law firm, formally known as the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Bulgaria. Fortunately, this time it didn’t work out – and now we’ll tell you how/why. Or as one of the emblematic songs

of the 2020 Protest was sung – “this time the Pig will remain hungry!”

To the extent that – at least at the beginning of the “Dunarit war” – the topic received wide media coverage, we will not repeat already known facts and circumstances. We will remind only our readers that at the heart of Peev’s appetites for the plant stood a special pledge contract through which the Italian entrepreneur Edoardo Miroglio saved a large part of his deposits in the bankrupt CCB. Subsequently, the rights to Miroglio’s pledge on Dunarit were acquired by a third party – namely, the phantom offshore Viafot. The phantom in question then tried to register as a pledgee in Miroglio’s place so that he could proceed with the execution of the pledge – and thus become the sole owner of the plant. An investigation by Bivol proved that behind this offshore
is actually
Peevski’s trusted lawyer, Alexander Angelov. A long and complex tangle of deeds followed, which to date – it seems – are finally lost to Peevski and his proxies.

A long tangle of deeds

We will only mark the more important battles back in time before telling you about Dunarit’s main victory from a few months ago. So, let’s drive in a row.

In June 2018, a third SAS trade panel
rejected
Viafot’s attempts to block Dunarit’s capital increase. The offshore did not dare to appeal to the SCC and so the decision came into force. The only thing we can add is this – thank God that at that moment Stefan Grozdev (known as the “MRF judge“) is no longer in the SAS. Otherwise… Remember. The phantom, however, also fought in the Supreme Administrative Court, where in his favor the “court of Joro” pronounced an extremely
skillful
decision of a five-member panel, with the rapporteur Hristo KOYchev (no, not a pun) being seconded from Varna just before the “accidental” distribution of the case. Either way, however, this decision came too late and failed to help Peevski stop the acquisition of Dunarit by arms dealer Emko. It is worth remembering this decision of the Supreme Administrative Court, however, it follows that any Seychelles/Cayman mailboxes and straw persons have a “legal interest” in tinkering with strategic sectors of the Bulgarian economy – such as the arms one. It is also worth remembering that, according to a judge of the three-member panel, who wished to remain anonymous, Georgi Cholakov

personally exerted pressure on judges to resolve the case in favor of Peevski. Either way, after failing to do its dirty work, the mailbox self-liquidated and
self-deleted
in December 2019, as evidenced by the Commercial Register.

Meanwhile, in the summer of 2017, a new proxy of Peevski – the new Economy Minister Emil Karanikolov – took the stage. Although at a later stage he became famous for his senseless and
comic
flight-for-dates to Dubai, at that time Karanikolov had a key role in the scheme – to activate DKK, which would try to fit in as the owner of Dunarit in place of Viafot. Through a series of dubious deals, in which CCB’s trustees are fully involved, SCC is trying to do what Viafot fails – to acquire the arms factory through the special pledge contract. Here, too, Dunarit resisted ferociously – he quickly paid his debts to DKK, after which he filed a lawsuit to eliminate any possible claims on the part of the state-owned company. We will not bother readers with the details of this separate judicial saga, but it is enough to point out only the final
decision
of the Supreme Court of Cassation of September 2021 in favor of Dunarit. In it, the Supreme Court judges incriminated the SCC in an “abuse of right” that was “solely for the purpose of harming the debtor plaintiff.” Bigger slap than that, health tell him. At the same time, to this day it is not clear where the payment from Dunarit to the DKK was located – according to the caretaker government’s audit last year, these are some 50 million levs, which are “simply gone”. Did they get to Peevski through another Caribbean mailbox? Who knows… Probably Adv. Alexander Angelov knows. Why not Geshev? But recently BIRD found out something else. In order for the batak between DKK and CCB to be complete, the trustees filed a lawsuit against DKK in 2021 for non-payment of an agreed price of BGN 21 million – apparently less than half of the value of the murky “deal” concluded in 2017. But even this partial amount will not enter the bankruptcy estate of the bankrupt bank – because a few days ago the trustees
lost
the case. And for cream they were sentenced to pay one million leva fees and expenses. It’s nice. It’s done.

As we wrote above, with a newer date, the arms company scored two serious victories in court. They actually put an end (at least in this and part) to the saga around Dunarit’s property. First, in November 2021, the court finally
obliged
the Registry Agency to delete the pledge on the commercial enterprise. Against the backdrop of the won case in the Supreme Court of Cassation (which we mentioned above), this finally puts an end to the appetites of Peevski and his proxies – be they Viafot, Corpbank AD or DKK – to seize the arms manufacturer. Secondly, on February 10, the court in Ruse
revoked
the refusal of the Registry Agency to register an increase in the capital of the company. This was actually the second key component in the saga, as it was during this increase that the acquisition of Dunarit by Emco was cemented and finalized . Over the years, not only Viafot, but also Tsatsar’s KPKONPI fought against it. However , these conspiracy claims were finally cut back in 2018 by the Supreme Court of Cassation. To date, KPKONPI still has claims against Dunarit (unclear on what grounds) within the mega-case for confiscation of two billion levs due to the bankruptcy of CCB – which for 6 years cycles in the Sofia City Court. How it will develop is yet to be seen. It is significant, however, that recently the court
terminated
another, secondary confiscation case against Emko and Dunarit – the generally motives of Judge Kyurkchiev being that KPKONPI does not seem to know what it is doing. In this terminated case, the Tsatsarov Commission will also pay hefty costs.

It doesn’t work in court – go with the Prosecutor’s Office!

However, the commercial and judicial saga is only one side of the coin. Seeing that his efforts to break through the court (or rather to break through the court) were not successful, Peevski activated his beloved, ubiquitous law firm – the Prosecutor’s Office. In August 2017, shortly after Viafot lost at first instance in the Sofia City Court and simultaneously with the offensive undertaken by Karanikolov, Tsatsarov also threw himself on the embrasure. And more specifically, the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office and its boss Geshev. Suddenly it turns out that all of Dunarit’s CEOs are packaged in and charged as OCGs – the favorite legal nonsense/fiction used by the special prosecutor’s office to “catch” jurisdiction. The same is being done in a flash with regard to Dunarit’s new owner, arms dealer Emilian Gebrev – as in the second OCG “for a number” are glued both his son and Emko’s commercial director. A source from the project told BIRD that to this day this pre-trial proceedings “cycles”, looking for new and new occasions / pretexts to extend it, but not to actually go to court – such as triple, fivefold, sevenfold, etc. expertise to give the “right” result. But as they say, the white black does not happen – so if you are going to “dwarf” the whole list of experts (in Barnirible). At the same time, thanks to the legal amendments to the miracle Barney Rubble, in 2017 Tsatsarov’s favorite figure of the “eternal defendant” was resurrected – i.e. the possibility of the defendant asking the prosecutor to bring the case to court after 2 years had passed – or to terminate it directly was eliminated. From which it follows that the accused can now sit until the Second Coming (i.e. until the Instrument of God decides). However, there is still the possibility for the court to oblige the prosecutor to close the investigation – again at the initiative of the affected party. Or at least that’s the case in theory. By order under CHD 2530/2020 of 25.10.2020, Judge Hristina Mihaylova from the SNA instructs the Prosecutor’s Office to complete the pre-trial proceedings within two months. To this day, the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office refuses to execute the judicial act. This is unprecedented prosecutorial arrogance and arrogance – but it is hardly an isolated case. Just for this case we have secure data. What do we do when the offender is the prosecutor himself?! The question is rhetorical – do not waste to answer, Comrade Geshev.

Prosecutor’s own goal

At the same time, however, the OCG Prosecutor’s Office scored a huge own goal. In February 2019, the British services publicly announced that the officers of the Russian GRU who carried out a terrorist attack with the Novichok chemical weapons on British soil were exactly the same agents who organized the assassination attempt on Gebrev. Pay attention – the terrorist attack on Bulgarian soil in 2015 used an earlier version of Novichok – which attacked the same three people who in 2017 the special caps “assembled” in the OCG. Pretty embarrassing, don’t you think? Let’s be so good for the prosecution to decide – are these three accused people or victims of one of the most brazen terrorist attacks in the new Bulgarian history (fortunately, without a fatal outcome). Against this background, the Chief Sotir has the audacity to claim (at least initially) that it was actually food poisoning with arugula and coffee. Count!! Pressed by the revelations of the British services, prosecutors subsequently announced that they had sent a court order to the United States for the purpose of facial recognition of GRU officers from a camera recording. Since then, more than two years have passed – more than enough time for the execution of such an order. It’s been a long time, but it’s hiding. Why is he hiding – well, so that the case does not go to court, apparently. Either way, the prosecution refuses to provide any news on the subject.

According to BIRD, at least three prosecutors have already worked in this case – Boyko Konakchiyski, Stefan Rachev and (recently) Zoya Mananska. To date, the first one has already been promoted to the SCP. However, the archives keep interesting information – back in 2006 his head of the SRS Slavcho Karzhev implicated him in “
corrupt agreements related to the cases
“. Interestingly, as a result, Karzhev himself was convicted by Konakchiyski of defamation – but in 2017 the ECHR “reversed” this sentence and
awarded
Karzhev BGN 11,000 in compensation. The bottom line is that taxpayers are paying. Again.

Prosecutor Rachev is mainly known for his work on the Naglite case, which has little to do with complex, cross-border crimes such as the assassination attempt on Gebrev. Also, he has long been seconded to the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office by the Sofia Regional Prosecutor’s Office – a favorite way to ensure concrete results in specific cases. Finally, prosecutor Zoya Mananska is mainly known for her work on the murder of Georgi Ignatov in Borisova Gradina, on which last year the SCC issued an acquittal. Again, it is not clear what this has to do with an investigation into a terrorist attack with chemical weapons. As a matter of fact, it is generally not clear what this case in the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office does at all, as the place of terrorism as a jurisdiction is in the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office – and Geshev has repeatedly used this as an argument against its closure. Moreover, there were exactly three GRU agents – well, here’s the OCG ready. On the other hand, the case against Peevski’s “killers” is in the SP – although there are only two of them. Go get the prosecutor’s “logic.” Apparently , the yardstick is twofold – according to how far (or not) the case should go.

It becomes more than obvious that here too everything possible is being done to protract the case – and so for 7 (!) years. For example, according to Boyko Noev, the Bulgarian Prosecutor’s Office is
sabotaging
the attempts of the Organization of Chemical Weapons (OXO) to participate in the clarification of the case, to which the OXO is entitled under the international conventions ratified by Bulgaria. Moreover, our information is that in 2020 the prosecution is trying to stop the case – arguing that the GRU officers are physically on the territory of Russia – and that “hearing the case in the absence of the defendants would prevent the objective truth of the case from being revealed.” This is a rather strange argument given that the case against Tsvetan Vassilev, for example, has been in the judicial phase for 5 years now, without him being in Bulgaria and without even being questioned. Apparently , the yardstick here is double. It is an honor for the court, however, that in this case it is in its place. By order under CHD 3290/2020 of 17.09.2022, Judge Tony Getov revoked the suspension of the investigation. Generally speaking, the judge points out that since 16 volumes and 6 binders of evidence were collected in the case, it is not clear why the prosecutor needed the three accused Russian officers – against whom the investigation is conducted anyway under the conditions of extramural proceedings. And he instructs the prosecutor to continue investigating. Since then, the case has supposedly worked proc. Manan. It is significant, however, that Russia has never requested the extradition of the three defendants. Not that they will give them to us – but obviously the prosecution is afraid to even ask for them. Sakan, let’s not annoy the Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika – whom both Tsatsarov and Geshev warmly welcomed in Sofia, and with whom they warmly embraced each other (in Sofia, and then in Moscow). Even a joint
interview
was given by Chaika and Tsatsarov – something like a family performance in the secular chronicle of “24 Hours”. Ironically, the title of this interview is “
Yuri Chaika: Russia is a peace-loving country, we are not a threat to anyone
.”

In fact, the cooperation agreement between the Bulgarian and Russian prosecutors’ offices, signed at that time by Chaika and Tsatsarov, remains active to this day. On April 4 this year, during another hearing in the SJC on Geshev’s removal, Justice Minister Yordanova expressed bewilderment that Geshev had not yet terminated this agreement. This was specifically in the context of Paragraph 9 of the request for his removal – namely, his inaction in the Gebrev case. Geshev’s response, available on page 100 of
the minutes
, was staggering. Despite Russia’s formal disassociation as an aggressor state and despite its exclusion from a number of international organizations, Geshev said.It is normal for there to be interaction between law enforcement agencies of all countries, regardless of politics, and despite politics, because we are not politicians, but professionals“. That is, for Geshev, Prosecutor General Chaika – although he was involved in brutal corruption scandals – he continues to be a “professional” and the designation of Russia as an aggressor state is “politics”. Perhaps, according to Geshev, Russia is currently conducting a “special political operation” in Ukraine?! Such a thick-haired, brazen and soulless statement is another proof of who is one of the main supporters of the fifth column in Bulgaria. And why should this supporter be thrown out of the judicial system as soon as possible? God, put your Instrument away. Amen.

***

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This post is also available in: Български (Bulgarian)