“Second Ski Lift Scheme” – Cover for Fibank Drain by Majority Shareholder Mind the horns!

Tseko Minev and his wife Radka Mineva have pocketed close do BGN 6 million from properties in the winter resort town of Bansko. They were sold in 2014 and 2017 to heavily-indebted offshore companies, funded by First Investment Bank (FIB or Fibank). Minev is one of the two majority shareholders in the bank, along with Ivaylo Mutafchiev, who also owns properties in the same vicinity, but has not sold them yet, according to data from the Property Register and the Cadaster, analyzed by Bivol.

Some of Tseko Minev’s properties were sold in 2014 and 2017 with huge profits.

The properties, which are located between the Glazne River in the “Sredoreko“ site, were acquired by Minev and Mutafchiev at a price of BGN 1 per square meter in the not so distant past, between 2003 and 2006. They were bought from local people.

In 2014, the Minevi family sold to “Orange Design” three properties with a total area of 13,462 square meters for BGN 3,911,660 or BGN 290 per square meter. In May 2017, they sold two more properties with a total area of 2,958 square meters to “Gehard”. It paid BGN 1 million leva or 338 leva per square meter. In September 2017, again through Gehard, Minevi sold a property of 4,000 square meters for BGN 977,915 or BGN 244 per square meter.

Tseko Minev has earned BGN 6 million from properties in Bansko. He bought them for BGN 1 per square meter, sold them to offshores funded by Fibank for а 300 times higher price. “Second Ski Lift Scheme” – Cover for Fibank Drain by Majority Shareholder

All these properties are meadows, located between the Glazne River and the ski lift. The station of the planned second cabin lift should be built on some of these plots before the lift enters the protected area of the Pirin park. In December 2017, the Regional Inspectorate for Environment and Waters (RIEWs) took a decision, which also envisages construction on these properties. Therefore, new hotels might pop up there soon.

Georgios paid millions to Tseko

Research in the ownership of the offshores that bought the properties of Tseko Minev and his wife shows that they are closely connected with the concessionaire in the resort – “Yulen” – and its owner – the destitute Cypriot national Georgios Georgiou, who has borrowed loans in the amount of BGN 1.2 billion from Fibank.

Georgiou is the company’s director and owner through two other offshores of the Cypriot “Alfaro Consultants”, which stands behind “Orange Design”.

The former manager of “Yulen”, Boyan Mariyanov, was also manager of “Gehard” until his death. The owner of the company is the Cypriot “Catalina Trading”, which is represented by Evdokia Maklamouzi, another straw person, known from Bivol’s investigations into Fibank. However, the almighty Georgios is seen here as well.

Evdokia Maklamouzi appoints a new manager of “Gehard” after the passing of Boyan Mariyanov, manager of “Yulen A”.

According to а current excerpt from the Cypriot Trade Register, two of the offshore owners, whose owner is Georgios Georgiou – ” BUN SECRETARIAL LIMITED ” and ” DUC NOMINEES LIMITED ” – are the owner of “Catalina Trading”.

We recall that the same Georgios is behind the property of the concessionaire “Yullen”, as Bivol’s earlier investigation revealed.

Heavily-indebted offshores

“Alfaro Consultants” owes Fibank EUR 6,200,000 from a loan from 2007, data on the special stake in the Trade Register shows.

The owner of “Orange Design” owes EUR 6.2 million to Fibank

But instead of repaying the debt to the bank, in 2017 this firm has chosen to buy properties for EUR 2 million from Tseko Minev, co-owner of the same bank.

“Catalina Trading” is also heavily indebted. In the latest Financial Statement from 2013, published in the Cyprus’ Trade Register in 2016, auditors voice alarm because the company had losses of nearly EUR 1 million in 2013 and its total indebtedness had reached EUR 6 million. The auditors question the company’s viability in case it does not receive financial support from the owners, that is, from unemployed strawmen such as Georgios.

Gehard’s Cypriot owner is heavily indebted, shows a 2013 audit

Thus, the picture that emerges from the tensions surrounding the issue of building or not building a second cabin lift in Bansko is a very transparent “bankster” scheme to further drain Fibank, designed by its owners Tseko Minev and Ivaylo Mutafchiev. In this scheme, the robbed ones are the depositors who keep their money in the bank. After Tseko and Ivailo cash in the millions from their properties and send them to their personal accounts, the hollow offshores will build on these properties with new loans from Fibank. A 2011 report by the auditors of the central bank (the Bulgarian National Bank, BNB), published by Bivol, proves that the loans granted to the “Georgioses” come back in the bank and contribute to a huge capital hole that is probably higher than that of the collapsed Corporate Commercial Bank (CCB).

We recall that last year the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office fully confirmed Bivol’s evidence that Fibank is being drained by its owners through offshores and strawmen, but did not notice any problem with this practice.

Moreover, the institutions are now working actively for the implementation of this criminal scheme and are ready to sacrifice even the Pirin National Park. This was made clear by the decision of the government of Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, taken in the last days of 2017, shortly after Tseko Minev sold another appetizing property and the RIEWs gave the green light for the construction of new hotels.

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