The MOEW will pay BGN 25 million to an 83-year-old British man

The heating power plant TPP “Brickel” should receive 25m euros from the budget, because the Ministry of Environment and Water incorrectly cut its greenhouse gas quotas, it became clear from a decision of the Sofia City Administrative Court, quoted by Mediapool. The decision is subject to appeal in the Supreme Administrative Court.

The actual owner of Brickell in the Bulgarian Trade Register is officially declared 83-year-old British David Fordham. He lives somewhere in the industrial area of Wakefield, West Yorkshire. The company through which he owns Brickell is called Bakkar Limited. It has 1 pound of capital and is kept dormant according to the British Trade Register.

At the same address is the owner of Toplofikatsia “Pleven” Elizabeth Clayer Ullum. It owns the company Cataland Ltd., also with 1 pound of capital and 1 pound of account balance. The modest British company owns 100% of the shares of the Pleven district heating company.

The match in addresses is not easy to find in the Commercial Register, where there is no search by beneficial owner. Since 2018, companies must declare their beneficial owners under the Measures Against Money Laundering Act. It implements the European Directive on the disclosure of property in the company registers of the Member States.

For the purposes of journalistic investigations, BRRD has created a convenient search tool in the open data of the Commercial Register. It makes it easy to detect the declared beneficial owners. It is enough to enter the name of the company or person and the text ActualOwners in the search engine. It can also be searched by address.

The owner of DHC “Burgas” is 81-year-old Stuart Ralph Poppleton. He owns the Burgas district heating company through the company Bovard Ltd. He listed as an address a house in a residential area decorated with a scaled replica of an Easter Island statue.

Brickel, TPP Bobov Dol and other energy facilities in the country are contacted by businessman Hristo Kovachki, who, however, claims that he is only a consultant and has no ownership in them. In addition to the British of respectable age, Belize citizen Erlin May Rodriguez (Bobov Dol), Ksenia Toma from Cyprus (Sliven), Stefanus Konstantinou from Cyprus (Pernik), etc. are declared as actual owners of district heating companies across the country.

The “straw people” who conceal the beneficial owners are announced with notarized declarations, which are obviously false documents, but the prosecutor’s office does nothing to track down the actual owners and punish the persons who have submitted the fraudulent documents in the Commercial Register. The example of these strawmen, owners of district heating, also illustrates the impotence (or reluctance) of the state to shed light on the actual owners of offshore companies under the Measures Against Money Laundering Act.

If the court decides in favor of David Fordham and the MOEW pays him 25 million, the joy of the British pensioner will not be long. In turn, he will have to pay the NRA, which is looking for a solid amount of BGN 38,792,983.44 from Brickell. according to the debtor lists current as of 2020-12-31.

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