Dubai Uncovered: 10 apartments of Veliko Zhelev valued at over $ 4.1 million

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The construction “great and tough” boss Veliko Zhelev, who was arrested on charges

of coercion with fighting and released

by the prosecutor’s office on bail of 20,000 leva declined to comment on what he owns in Dubai. In front of a pool of journalists taken to an unbuilt bridge on the Hemus highway, the owner of Hydrostroy replied to a question about his Dubai possessions: “For the moment I do not have a hotel in Dubai.” But as early as May 2022, the properties of Veliko Zhelev in the glamorous emirate were revealed by the international investigation #DubaiUncovered.

According to 2020 data in the investigation “Dubai Uncovered, Veliko Zhelev has purchased ten apartments in Dubai. The largest apartment with an area of 268.09 sq.m. E at Serenia Residences, on the artificial island in Palm Jumeirah was valued at $1,080,451. Nine more apartments, described in detail below, have an area between 131 sq.m. and 47 sq.m. and are in Liv Residence, in the expensive neighborhood of Dubai Marina. The total value of Zhelev’s real estate is over $4.1 million. The total area of the 10 apartments is 1 034.62 sq.m.

According to passport data, the 10 apartments were acquired by Veliko Zhelev Before the fall of 2019, there is no information on whether to date Zhelev’s real estate investments in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have increased. We learned from his words that “for the moment” there is no hotel in Dubai.

“In Bulgaria, business cannot be done.”

“The sooner we run away from Bulgaria to work elsewhere, it will be good. I especially opened the offices in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, North Macedonia and Romania,” Veliko Zhelev said in an interview with bTV hours after he was released from custody.

Apartment on the island palm Palm Jumeirah

Apartments in the expensive district of Dubai Marina

Nine of the ten apartments purchased by Veliko Zhelev in Dubai are in the same complex Liv Residence, in the expensive Dubai Marina.

The nine apartments of Veliko Zhelev in Liv Residence as follows:

– apartment with an area of 130.75 sq.m. valued at $517,146.03
– apartment with an area of 117.98 sq.m. valued at $466,637.78
– apartment with an area of 96.86 sq.m. valued at $383,103.38
– apartment with an area of 87.47 sq.m. valued at $345,963.78
– apartment with an area of 81.12 sq.m. valued at $320,848.10
– apartment with an area of 80.00 sq.m. valued at $316,418.22
– apartment with an area of 76.31 sq.m. valued at $301,823.44
– apartment with an area of 49.17 sq.m. valued at $194,478.55
– apartment with an area of 46.87 sq.m. valued at $185,381.52

So far in “Revelations Dubai”

The international investigation #DubaiUncovered reveals over 240 Bulgarian citizens and residents who own properties worth over $ 160 million in Dubai. So far, they have published data on properties of the mother of MP Delyan Peevski, the construction boss Veliko Zhelev, the sister of the Deputy Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov, the builder of our pavilion for “Expo 2020” in Dubai Ralitsa Ivanova, the sisters Gergana Simova and Elitsa Proshenska and the underground boss Radostin Barzanov – Rado the Sun, close to the druglord Christophorost Amanatidis – Taki and Vasil Iliev.

The “Dubai Uncovered” investigation is based on data on more than 800,000 records from Dubai’s land registry, which date back to 2020 and were obtained from C4ADS (Washington, D.C.-based Centre for Advanced Defence Research). They were shared with Norwegian financial centre E24, which coordinates the real estate investigation together with 20 investigative media, including Le Monde, Süddeutsche Zeitung, the Danish TV2 and OCCRP. As part of the network of OCCRP BIRD is the Bulgarian partner in the project.

Lead photo: Veliko Zhelev (left), view of Liv Residence, in Dubai Marina (right)

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