Unlicensed Spanish Financier and Bulgarian Organized Crime Group Surface from Collapsed Insurer Mind the horns!

Diego Gonzalez Alonso is the on-paper end owner of the collapsed Cypriot insurance company “Olympic”, which left without insurance 270,000 drivers in Bulgaria, according to a check in the Cyprus and Luxembourg trade registers conducted by Bivol. Its partners in Bulgaria are related to the infamous SIC group.

Alonso, himself, admits to the Spanish media InfoLibre.es that he is the sole owner of the Luxembourg company Hispakol, which is the ultimate owner of the Cypriot insurer “Olympic”. On paper, he is also a manager of Hispakol (see here).

The Spanish media recalls that in 2015 the Spanish National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) had warned (see here) that the Alonso-managed companies NYSB and JD Business Capital are not allowed to carry out financial investment services in Spain. The Spanish media then commented that it was just another unlicensed financier. Shortly after the publication by CNMV, JD Business Capital’s site disappeared, which is interpreted as tracks covering.

Despite the “red flags” from Spain, the Bulgarian Financial Supervision Commission (FSC), which also possesses the data on the end owners of “Olympic”, has let the company operate for many years and recruit over 270,000 clients. Eventually, in May this year, it was forced to remove the “Olympic” from the insurance market after a warning by the Cypriot insurance supervision.

A few weeks before “Olympic” was declared bankrupt in Cyprus in May, the parent company “Hispakol” had bought a EUR 17 million business with remote training courses by the Spanish UGT trade union, which is close to the Spanish Socialists. The deal, concluded at the end of April 2018, remains perplexing because “Hispakol” has no experience whatsoever in this area.

On Thursday, the former head of the Bulgarian National Security Services (NSS) and chairman of the right-wing party Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) Atanas Atanassov announced that “everyone knew who was behind “Olympic””. According to him, these are the owners of the company “BUL INS”. Atanassov did not provide evidence of this claim.

The Bulgarian Trade Register clearly indicates that Krum Krumov, who is currently the manager of “BUL INS”, has in the past been the manager of the Bulgarian branch of “Olympic”.

The ownership of “BUL INS” is associated with alleged organized crime ringleaders, Krasimir and Nikolay Marinovi, also known as “The Marguin Brothers”, but also with the gambling boss Vasil “The Skull” Bozhkov, the site Mediapool wrote in 2005 on the occasion of raids at the offices of Bozhkov’s company in Sofia. “The Marguins” had been members of the SIC criminal group to which current Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov allegedly had also been connected in the past. The headline picture of this publication shows him in the company of Krasimir Marinov and other SIC bosses at a party on the occasion of the group’s anniversary (photo by Capital).

A connection with SIC further surfaces through the company “Focus Property”, which is owned by the Cypriot insurer “Olympic”. One of the directors, Petar Paunov, had been a partner in the consulting company “B&S Consulting” with Silvia Panagonova, the widow of the murdered SIC boss Milcho “Baj Mile” Bonev.

If Diego Gonzalez Alonso proves to be a strawman for the owners of “BUL INS”, this is a violation of the Law on Disclosure of Offshore Owners, adopted at the initiative of controversial Bulgarian lawmaker, businessman and media mogul Delyan Peevski.

The only way to establish the real owners of “Olympic” would be a confession by Alonso in case of an indictment against him and him becoming a witness of the prosecution. So far, however, the Bulgarian authorities and the prosecutor’s office have not indicated that they would seek charges for the robbery of more than 270,000 Bulgarian citizens.

Still, Hispakol’s EUR-17-million deal with the remote learning business looks like a classic capital drain because it was sealed literally days before “Olympic” went bankrupt. In this case, the Cypriot and Spanish prosecutor’s offices are the ones having the means to untangle the affair and establish the real owners of the company.

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