The Pandora Papers: Civil servants and debtors of the Tax Office have offshore companies

Former freight forwarder Valentin Casanov, with BGN 3 million confiscated. He registered an offshore company in the Seychelles a week before he was convicted. Former SFA expert Milko Minkovski, revealed in Offshosleaks, has 3 other offshore companies in the Pandora Files. “The Debt Cleaner” Petar Balabanov, connected to a network of companies accumulating millions of debts to the state, owns 3 offshore companies in Seychelles. Milena Kabadzhova, connected to the financial fraudsters Ilan Tzorya and “The Wolf of Sofia” Gal Barak, has an offshore company in the Seychelles. The Varna businessman Dobromir Andonov, connected to 50 companies, 20 of which owe BGN 8 million to the NRA, also owns an offshore company.

This is shown by the recently updated with a new large portion of names database from the Pandora Files of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists ICIJ.

Forwarder with confiscated BGN 3 million. by KONPI

Valentin Yordanov Kazanov seized property worth BGN 2 954 367.15, acquired from criminal activity in case of a crime against the monetary and credit system. This is reported on p. 13 in Report of the CIAF for 2017. Kazanov is a former freight forwarder in Ruse Free Zone and sole owner of the Ruse Zone.BG Transit

Ltd., which is currently in liquidation.

the Veliko Tarnovo Court of Appeal
in part
approves the KONPI’s request for asset forfeiture, rejecting the seizure of property owned by Kazanov and his family. The withdrawal of cash from the accounts of “BG Transit

Ltd.

Valentin Kazanov He was acquitted of money laundering charges. He was sentenced to 3 years on probation for repeatedly transferring sums totaling BGN 3 million on behalf of a person represented by him. offshore company “Myth Investment”. The amounts were received for transit imports of goods from Turkey passing through the Ruse Free Zone. Subsequently, they were exported at twice reduced prices to Russia. About the accusations and the scheme then informed “
Morning
.”

The Pandora Files
reveal
and another offshore company of Valentin Kazanov. Seychelles Blueriver Venture Ltd

became its property on 3 August 2017 or a week before the judgment

from 11.08.2017 to the Veliko Tarnovo Court of Appeal. The SCC has not allowed an appeal and the decision comes into force. The offshore company has no activity in Bulgaria, a check in the Commercial Register showed.

Former civil servant in SFA with 3 other offshore companies

Former expert at State Fund Agriculture Milko Minkovski revealed

in 2013 in “Offshoreleaks” with two offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands. While a civil servant in 2006, he became Director of Offshore Ferpac Marketing Ltd.

and Amelcort Universal Inc

. Before that, during the period 2003 -2005 Minkovski worked at the Ministry of Education.

Pandora files reveal 3 more offshore companies Milko Emilov Minkovski in the British Virgin Islands. Risehall Investments Limited was registered on 28 November 2006. Belport Investments Limited was registered on 15 April 2009. A Blairmont International Limited was registered on July 4, 2013. The offshore companies have no activity in Bulgaria, a check in the Commercial Register showed.

Debt cleaner in a scheme of a network of companies

“The Debt Cleaner” Petar Balabanov was described in 2016 by
the Banker
as a participant in a network of companies accumulating millions of debts to the state. It is related to the 25 companies, two of which are present in the lists with over 8.4 million obligations to the NRA. “BRIN” Ltd is currently in bankruptcy proceedings. Balabanov was a manager and has long since left the company. “Viestate“EOOD, in which Balabanov was the sole owner, has been declared bankrupt and has already been deleted, and the obligation to the NRA has been written off.

Denis Barekov, associated with 32 companies

, also participates in the “debt cleaners” scheme., of them and borrowers in the Bulgarian Development Bank. He is disclosed

in 2016 in the Panama Papers as a shareholder in offshore Plemco Holding Inc

. Denis Barekov is a distant relative of
Nikolay Barekov
, who found himself with an undeclared offshore.

The Pandora files reveal 3 more offshore companies of Petar Ivanov Balabanov in the Seychelles. Since November 2016, he has owned Rimeria Investment Ltd. Since February 2018, he has KPT (Kepplinger Precision Technology) Limited. As of May 2018 and Erraia Commerce Inc. Offshore companies have no activity in Bulgaria, a check in the Commercial Register showed.

Bulgarian from the scheme of financial fraudsters Ilan Tzorya and “The Wolf from Sofia” Gal Barak

Milena Tancheva Kabadzhova is a manager of companies in Bulgaria related to Ilan Tzorya – partner of “The Wolf of Sofia“” Gal Barak. Zorya fell into investigation

of the Pandora Files of the German public broadcaster ARD

Bulgaria turned out to be the base of financial fraudsters who dragged hundreds of millions of euros from naive customers. A large part of the amounts from the illegal activity have passed through accounts in Investbank of companies – mailboxes and offshore companies, revealed an investigation of Bivol in 2019

The Pandora files reveal Milena Kabadzhova as the owner of the Seychelles-registered offshore BizDev Limited since November 2016.

According to the indictment of Ilan Zorya, provided on the website Finleaks, the offshore BizDev plays an important role in the scheme with hundreds of millions of euros. In another Material Finleaks describes in great detail the role of the mysterious Milena Kabadzhova and shows numerous documents and communication between her and Tzorya.

Varna businessman – wanted debtor of the NRA

Varna businessman Dobromir Stefanov Andonov is connected to
50 companies
. 20 companies owe 8 million of the NRA. Since October 2019, he owns the Seychelles offshore Transcommerce Ltd also operating in Bulgaria. The data in the Commercial Register show that the offshore company is (or was) the owner in 8 Bulgarian companies. In 6 of them no beneficial owner has been declared and are among the 34 companies
Lawbreakers
of anti-money laundering measures.

Dobromir Andonov is the owner of the supermarket chains
Parkmart
and ALDO stores along the Black Sea coast and winter resorts. It is ALDO companies (Deliberation, Bansko, Borovets, Elenite, Golden Sands, Luxori, Mirage, Miramar, Plaza, Rila, Retail, Winther, Phoenix, Fresh, Helena) that are among the debtors of the NRA. In the NRA’s archive of messages under Article 32 of the TSSPC, there are dozens of messages to Andonov. This from 09.11.2020 is for serving an audit act.

Until now in the Pandora Files

Dozens of names of Bulgarians were included in
the updated
database of the Pandora Files of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists ICIJ. Among the new names of Bulgarians in the database are: relatives of a lawyer Momchil Mondeshki, trusted person of Delyan Peevski; Businessman and politician Arben Khavalev, close to Ahmed Dogan; Ivan Stamenov’s brother from “The Eight Dwarfs“; the financial fraudster Ilan Zorya, partner of “The Wolf of Sofia” by Gal Barak, the underground boss Radostin Barzanov, about which we have already informed.

The Bulgarian politicians in the Pandora Files revealed so far are Delyan Peevski

and Nickolay Mladenov

and Nikolay Barekov

, and Arben Havalev

. In addition, the files include large financiers, lawyers, individuals associated with multimillion-dollar fraudulent schemes, but also entrepreneurs with regular business, with no visible political protections, who have registered offshore companies and have announced them to the Bulgarian authorities.

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 of over a billion leva from their own bank. Their offshore companies have also been used in schemes for racketeering the business with final beneficiary Delyan Peevski.

The Pandora Files contains data from 14 offshore registration and maintenance companies whose files have been leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). To study this array of nearly 12 million documents, the consortium brought together 600 journalists from around the world for a global investigation called the Pandora-Files. BIRD.BG is the Bulgarian partner in this investigation, which is the largest coordinated cooperation of investigative journalists to date.

***

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