The Bulgarian Commercial Register is public and it is available online. The idea is that all documents filed in the Register with an electronic signature are visible to all users who have an electronic signature. This is important for the normal functioning of the business and for preventing abuses in disputes, theft of companies and other cases that may arise if the documents are not available to be examined by all stakeholders.

It turns out that it is simple to conceal documents when they are submitted in one file, together with an express written power of attorney of the lawyer who is filing them. Because the power of attorney is not visible, the other documents that may contain key information are not visible as well. This is because the system does not require the visible and the invisible documents to be submitted as separate files.

Precisely this loophole has been used by the Bulgarian lawyer of Belgrade Mayor Sinisa Mali. Late Sunday night she has filed documents which aim to prevent his dismissal from the post because of conflict of interests. The documents filed by Anna Ivanova Panayotova are still not visible on the site of the Commercial Register (see here).

Concealing documents in the Commercial Register turns out simple – mark them as a Power of Attorney.

Bivol, however, requested and received an official statement from the Registry Agency, which describes what documents were filed late at night on Sunday, October 25. We still have no access to their content, but it is obvious that attorney Panayotova wishes to declare the circumstances retroactively, with a back-date from February after having declared something quite different in June. We urged the Agency to provide the full set of documents to see if they contain declared false circumstances or outright fakes.

As revealed by the Serbian Center for Investigative Journalism KRIK.rs and Bivol, Sinisa Mali was representative of two offshore companies that own 24 properties on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. He did not declare these facts; moreover, his position is incompatible with the post. The documents are currently available in the Bulgarian Commercial Register definitely confirm that since 2012 Sinisa Mali was the director of two offshore companies and until February 2015 he signed on their behalf.

Serbian Prime Minister Vucic declared in response to a journalist’s question that Mali has no right to hold office if it is proved that he is a representative of offshore companies. The Serbian Anti-Corruption Agency announced today that the Mayor of Belgrade has not declared being the manager of foreign companies, while he has been holding public office since January 2013

See the current and visible in the Register documents signed by Sinisa Mali from 2012 to 2015.

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