Rumen Spesov signed the reports of his company while he was Chief Inspector at the tax office

The financial statement of the company “Granex Trader” Ltd. for 2014 was signed by Rumen Spetsov on February 28, 2015 . At that time he worked at the NRA as Chief Inspector in the Investigation of Special Cases Department of the National Revenue Agency Sofia. The information is found in NAPLeaks. It is also pointed out that Spesov’s access to the electronic systems of the revenue office was terminated on April 18, 2015.

A year later, the same company “Granex Trader” already has accumulated liabilities to the NRA for nearly a million leva and was sold by Spesov to a “tax mule”. This information was revealed by the Bureau of Investigative Reporting on the day of the appointment of Rumen Spesov to the post of Director of the NRA. The data on companies with debts to the NRA are public and are integrated into the public scanner maintained by the BRRD, which brings together information about companies from the Commercial Register, data on won public procurement, EU funds, corona subsidies and other public resources.

In February 2015, Spetsov was not officially listed as the manager or owner of Granex Trader, which belonged to his wife Plama Jeleva and Martin Iliev. Manager of documents is Martin Iliev. His name, however, does not appear anywhere in the financial statements for 2014, which records an impressive BGN 6.8 million net sales revenue. The report was signed by Rumen Spesov on 28.02.2015.

The Prosecutor’s Office classified the data about Spesov

The BRRD asked the NRA for information under the Access to Public Information Act on what date Rumen Spesov had left the agency, but was refused on the grounds that all documents in the case had been seized by the Prosecutor’s Office for inspection.

The Commercial Register shows that after leaving the NRA, on June 16, 2015, Rumen Spesov bought Martin Iliev’s shares in Granex Trader and became a manager of the company.

Ten months later, on April 7, 2016, Spetsov and his wife sold their shares in Granex Trader to a “straw man”, as revealed by BRRD. Only two months after this sale, Granex Trader obtained an audit act from the NRA No Р-22221015006486-091-001 / 17.06.2016. Since the new manager is undetectable, the NRA “serves” the act under art. 32 of the TSSPC by announcing its website under the heading “Wanted persons”.

A few more messages follow in the same order: Act for deregistration under the VAT Act No 220991606355256 / 07.12.2016. Request for submission of documents and written explanations from the Application Act – No П-22221016226698-040-001 / 16.01.2017. Request for submission of documents and written explanations from the Application Act – No П-22221016211044-040-001 / 03.01.2017. A case for enforcement under art. 212 of the TSSPC led by Senior Public Executor Zvezdelina Zlateva.

In the end, the company was entered in the NRA’s list of debtors without collateral in July 2017 with BGN 1,047,464.39. debt that has since swelled with interest.

Information about the content of these audit acts, letters and documents for the enforcement case can also not be provided, as the Prosecutor’s Office has classified them during the inspection, reads the response received by the NRA under the APIA. The probe was initiated by Finance Minister Assen Vassilev after the publication of the BRRD and the media interest in the topic.

The Minister declared his full support for Spetsov and supported his thesis that Granex Trader’s obligations to the fisc have nothing to do with him but were accumulated entirely by the new owner Daniel Nikolov. Before Free Europe, however, he said that “we will have to part with him” if the inspection confirms that the company’s debt has accumulated with Spesov.

However, there are serious arguments against this line of defense. The audit act for the liabilities was prepared only two months after Spesov sold the company, but a tax audit had taken place before him. Spesov could not have been unaware of the audit, as he was notified of it in his capacity as manager.

BRRD traced in more detail the company history of “Granex Trader” Ltd.

The first name of the company is “Point Break” Ltd. with address in Sofia. Sozopol. Manager and owner of the company then was Martin Iliev, who was a captain with qualifications to manage a vessel. “Point break” applied to “FLAG Primorsko – Sozopol – Tsarevo” with the European project “Tourist fishing cruise with sailing yacht

” under procedure 2.2 – Development of tourist attractions under the “Maritime and Fisheries Program 2007-2013”. An offer for the purchase of a yacht “Jeanneau Sun-Odyssey-DS-50DS” and a letter of intent for bank financing of the purchase with nearly 600 thousand levs have been presented. Lv. The company received a refusal on the project due to “inadmissibility of costs” and “inadmissibility of submitted offers that were issued in violation”.

After Spesov’s wife joined the company as a co-owner, she changed her name and moved her headquarters to Sofia.

The following table summarizes the company history of Rumen Spesov and his wife. The information is entirely from open sources.

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Разследващата журналистика е разузнаването на гражданите. BIRD се финансира от дарения. Ние не публикуваме реклами. Не получаваме държавни субсидии. Не разчитаме на грантове. Финансирането чрез малки дарения от читатели е гаранция за нашата независимост. Включете се, за да продължим да разкриваме злоупотреби и да държим отговорни властимащите. Използваме Вашите пари за хонорари на журналистите, командировки, изграждане и поддръжка на нашите информационни системи, такси за фирмени и имотни регистри у нас и по света, придобиване на техника и специално оборудване, осигуряване на нашата безопасност и други важни работни мисии. Важно: Ако дарявате всеки месец това ще ни даде възможност да планираме и организираме нашата работа. Благодарим Ви! Нас ни има, защото Вас Ви има!

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