Company of Top Witness in Legal Case Finances Apartment Purchased by Prosecutor’s Life Partner Mind the horns!

A company of Alexander Vaklin and Mario Krakovski has financed the residence where the life partner of Prosecutor General hopeful Ivan Geshev has bought an apartment at a price far below the tax assessment. They have other joint ventures for construction projects in the same neighborhood that had been funded from the same lender. This is evident from entries in the Commercial Register and Google Street archive footage from 2012 of “General Stoletov” boulevard in Sofia (see here) that shows a fenced construction site with a visible sign “Sofia Central – Directly from the Builder”.

This detail adds to the information provided by the prosecution, namely that the former manager of the company that had sold the cheap apartment to Detelina Hancheva is a longtime friend of Ivan Geshev. The information is included in a response by the Prosecutor’s Office to a complaint by the Civil Association “Boets” (Fighter) in connection with the same sale.

“From the data in the casefile, it is established that Ivan Geshev has known Karkovski for many years and both of them are on friendly terms,” the response of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office reads.

Actually, the “friend” Mario Karkovski and Alexander Vaklin are partners in the companies that have built the residential property in the Zone B-17 district in the Bulgarian capital Sofia.

Companies linked to Vaklin and Krakovski and the real estate deal with Geshev’s concubine Hancheva

The main company in the structure is MS-Consult 2004 Ltd., in which Vaklin and Karkovski are co-owners. It finances the other companies with loans.

In 2010-2011, the newly established MS Consult 2010 Ltd of Mario Karkovski received loans from MS-Consult 2004, (see here and here) to finance the construction of a residential building where in 2014 Detelina Hancheva, the life partner of Ivan Geshev, acquired a cheap apartment.

At the same time, March-April 2010, two companies with the participation of Sofia Central Ltd. acquired the terrain across the street. These are Imoti (Property) Management Stoletov and General Stoletov Property. Initially, Sofia Central Ltd. had been the property of MS-Consult 2004, in which Vaklin and Karkovski are co-owners. Subsequently, MS-Consult 2004 sold shares to Vaкlin, who remained the manager of the company throughout its existence.

After acquiring the plots, Kаrkovski and Vaklin’s companies have been transferred to offshore companies. MS Consult 2010 becomes the property of the Seychelles offshore Transview Holding Limited, and Miroslav Chergarov has been appointed as manager. Sofia Central has sold Property Management Stoletov and General Stoletov Property to another Seychelles offshore – Tasaki Holdings Limited.

This concealment of ownership appears to be related to the cash flows required to complete the construction work. Until then, they had come from MS-Consult 2004, where the partnership of Vaklin and Karkovski is evident.

Friendly businessman-prosecutor relations

Until November 9, 2012, Sofia Central of Alexander Vaklin had been a partner in the company M Consult 95. Then Vaklin’s company sold its shares for BGN 189,500 to MAV Group, whose ultimate owner is Karkovski.
A month later, on December 14, 2013, the M Consult 95 of the “friend” Mario Karkovski and Detelina Hancheva founded the company OTEA Ltd, in which they still have shares.

According to an investigation by the site Frognews, in 2014, Detelina Hancheva paid only BGN 465 (EUR 234) per square meter for an apartment of about 86 square meters in the then still under construction residential building on 8, “General Nikolay Stoletov” boulevard. We repeat – Alexander Vaklin’s company was the one that built the property. Property prices in the area at that time ranged between EUR 800 and EUR 900 per square meter.

A notary public has registered the deal at a price even below the tax assessment, but the Prosecutor’s Office sees no problem in this, demonstrating in advance what the results of the probes into all of the #ApartmentGate scandals with cheap property acquired by politicians will be. Current Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov is also among the officials with cheap properties. Bivol recently revealed that he had acquired a villa in the Rhodope Mountains for half the price.

Nevertheless, the Supreme Judicial Council must and should examine the very fact that Ivan Geshev’s family has benefited from an investment project with the direct involvement of Alexander Vaklin – the main witness in the scandalous legal case against former Sofia district mayor Desislava Ivancheva. Moreover, Geshev was extremely active in this same case. “Boets” has already announced it is preparing a complaint.

Another partner is associated with the destroyed tobacco warehouses in Plovdiv

Ivan Geshev’s friend Mario Karkovski and the “witness” Alexander Vaklin are also partners with Nayden Marinov Kolev through their companies, and the three run jointly the company Sofia Consult – B Ltd. Their joint business venture dates from 2008.

On his part, Nayden Kolev has business ties with the company that demolished the historic and emblematic old tobacco warehouses in the heart of the second largest city of Plovdiv. The prosecutions charged for the demolition Georgi Branekov and Alexnder Nicolic from the management of the company PJ Trade, keeper of the emblematic “Orient Tobacco” building. Kolev, Branekov, and Nikolic are co-owners in the company PJ Logistics, while a relative of Nayden Kolev is among the shareholders of PJ Trade.

Clarification: This article was updated on August 11, 2019. In the first version of our publication, the Google Street archive footage of 9 “General Stoletov” boulevard in Sofia was incorrectly listed as 8 “General Stoletov” boulevard, where the building of MS Consult 2010 is located. Mr. Vaklin sent to Bivol’s editorial office a right of reply, indicating this discrepancy.

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