Two cases in court and two agreements – the result of Geshev’s special supervision of the “mothers-in-law” houses

So far, 61 pre-trial proceedings have been initiated, two lawsuits have been conducted and two cases have ended with agreements of the Prosecutor’s Office with owners of guest houses financed with European money. This was announced by the Prosecutor’s Office in response to questions under the APIA. The BRRD wanted to know at what stage the investigations are a year after Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev ordered special supervision of the files on the guest houses.

The prosecutor’s office refused to provide information about the case numbers and before which courts they were brought. Information about the numbers of the prosecutor’s files and the prosecutor’s offices in which they were opened was also refused. With the same application under the APIA, we also requested information on the proceedings conducted by the Prosecutor’s Office under the so-called. ‘replacements’. It became clear that there is only one mismanagement proceedings conducted in the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office, which has not been completed.

The names of the accused and those who agreed with the prosecutor’s office remain secret, but some of them are publicly known from the fragmentary announcement of the state prosecution. Immediately after the scandal erupted in 2019, former Deputy Minister Alexander Manolev, from whose luxury villa the revelations of Bivol and Blagoevgrad News began, were charged. Subsequently, the case stalled in court in Blagoevgrad after several judges recused themselves. In the leaked recordings of Prime Minister Borisov, it is heard that he had warned Manolev about the impending accusation, which may have given him the opportunity to hide evidence and influence witnesses.

Meanwhile, it became clear that Manolev’s dummy – Ana Dimitrova, who is also accused, continues to receive agricultural subsidies for raising cows, as well as corona subsidies with the same company that built Manolev’s villa in Sandanski with EU funds. Other companies of nobles, beneficiaries of guest houses have also been harmed for corona subsidies.

So far, there is no evidence that Manolev’s property has been seized by KPKONPI. It became clear that only in April 2020 a distraint on the property was imposed by the NRA. This happened after the defendant Ana Dimitrova mortgaged the villa, the subject of the indictment, against a large loan from the financier Emil Harsev.

In March 2020, it became clear that the prosecution had filed charges against Miglena Yaneva from Batak. With her company “Hrimi Yak” she received BGN 371,520 . for a guest house in Batak, which was not used as intended. Yaneva is the wife of Yasen Yanev – longtime director of Haskovo Hospital, former MP from NMSS and Deputy Chairman of the National Hospital for Active Treatment in Haskovo. Minister of Labour and Social Policy. Miglena Yaneva is a partner in another company with Dr. Lilia Konsulova, a municipal councilor from GERB in Haskovo and mother of Deputy Mayor Evgeni Konsulov, a key figure in the “Kumgate” scandal, an investigation by Bivol revealed.

A month ago, the prosecutor’s office boasted of a case of an agreement approved by the court. The Montana District Prosecutor’s Office has agreed on a suspended sentence of 10 months with Denisa Ivanova, owner of the company Berktur, on charges of false information about receiving EU funds for a guest house in Berkovitsa.

It is strange that the fake projects in Batak and Berkovitsa are not included in the list of financial sanctions distributed by the SFA in November 2019, when the Fund asked 160 legal entities to recover 100% of the subsidy, and another 95 companies were imposed a partial penalty. The amount of the EU money requested back by the SFA was initially BGN 46.4 million, but after appeals of the affected decreased to BGN 19.77 million.

Currently, there are 210 administrative cases between the SFA and the owners of guest houses, who appeal the sanctions. One of the cases was finally resolved by the Supreme Administrative Court on February 8 this year. Borislav Iliev, owner of a house in Simitli, has to return BGN 330,000 to the SFA. or 100% of the funding. He was sanctioned for failing to implement the business plan. The beneficiary indicated when applying that the construction of a guest house would encourage growth and create new jobs, as well as rural tourism, but this did not happen.

Initially, the prosecutor’s office threatened to inspect all 778 contracted guest houses. According to unofficial information of the BRRD, at least 200 inspections have ended with a refusal to initiate pre-trial proceedings, including three houses of people close to GERB and another of a DPS person. For the five houses in Borino of relatives of MRF Chairman Mustafa Karadayi, there is no evidence of either financial sanctions or a prosecutor’s probe.

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