About EUR 130 million has been wired to Bulgarian accounts\nfrom more than 150 offshore companies associated with the \u201cTroika Laundromat\u201d \u2013\na money laundering system that has allowed corrupt politicians and organized\ncriminal figures to secretly launder money, evade taxes, hide assets abroad,\nand carry out other illegal activities. Among the big Bulgarian “beneficiaries”\nare the Governor of Burgas Region Valcho Cholakov, companies for construction\nof holiday properties, Russian citizens acquiring real estate in Bulgaria, the\ncoastal Tsarevo municipality and even the Bulgarian Embassy in Moscow. The\nmoney has been wired by companies linked to high level frauds, including the\ninfamous Magnitsky case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bivol, as a partner of the Organized Crime and Corruption\nReporting Project (OCCRP), is involved in the analysis of one of the largest\nreleases of banking information ever, encompassing more than 1.3 million leaked\ntransactions from 233,000 companies and involving over EUR 300 billion, mainly\nfrom Ukio Bankas, a troubled Lithuanian bank which was closed in 2013, but also\nfrom other banking institutions in the Baltic States. As in previous\ninvestigations such as \u201cRussian\nLaundromat<\/a>\u201d and \u201cAzerbaijani\nLaundromat<\/a>\u201d, the \u201cTroika Laundromat\u201d reveals a system of connected shell\ncompanies with offshore incorporation, registered to frontmen. The transactions\nhave been mostly bogus, supported by fake paperwork describing the trade of\nnon-existent goods to bypass money laundering and transfer huge sums of dubious\norigin from Russia to European countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the investigation by the OCCRP and its 21\nreporting partners from around the world, some of these companies are under the\ncontrol of Ruben Vardanyan, a Russian\/Armenian billionaire, investment banker\nand former owner of Troika Dialog, once Russia\u2019s largest private investment\nbank. In an interview<\/a>\nwith OCCRP, Vardanyan claims he has done nothing wrong and describes his system\nas a “private wealth management service,” and the offshores as “technical\nservice companies of Troika Dialog clients”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nevertheless, behind these “technical services”\nlies a large-scale criminal money laundering scheme facilitated by weak bank\nsupervision in, both, the Lithuanian banks through which the money has flowed\nto the European banking system and large correspondent Western banks receiving payments\nfrom suspicious offshores without asking questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Holiday properties\nagainst “consumer goods” and “textiles”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When in 2009, Russian entrepreneur S.R. and his wife bought\na luxury apartment in the Black Sea city of Burgas from a private person, they\ndid not pay personally a penny. The amount of BGN 205,000 has been transferred\nto the seller’s account in four installments by a company named PHARMEL TRADE.\nThe reason for the payments is listed as “for consumer goods”, which\nhas nothing to do with the real deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The same company has transferred more than EUR 1.9 million\nto Bulgaria for the period between July 2007 and November 2010. It has paid hundreds\nof thousands of euros for transportation services, including aviation charges for Air Traffic Control. In December 2008,\nit transferred “for consumer goods” over EUR 370,000 to the Bulgarian\naccount of A.B., a wealthy Russian businessman who in 2009 acquired an\napartment in the Black Sea town of Sozopol for BGN 285,000. Also in December\n2008, two other Russians received in their Bulgarian accounts EUR 383,000\n“for textiles” and EUR 390,000 “for clothing”, although\nthey both do not have such a business in Bulgaria. But they have luxury\nproperties on the Black Sea coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other offshore companies from the “Laundromat” have\nperformed similar property payment transactions. For example, not one, but two\noffshore companies have paid the apartment in the winter resort of Chepelare of\nRussian national A.K. – OKRA ENTERPRISES LIMITED and CEDALE HOLDING CO S.A.\nBoth have transferred money to the accounts of the major financial distributors\ncontrolled by Ruben Vardanyan: GOTLAND INDUSTRIAL BRIGHTWELL CAPITAL INC and\nNIXFORD CAPITAL CORP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One explanation for these payments through offshore\ncompanies is that wealthy Russians do not want to wire personal money via bank\ntransfers because they probably cannot prove their origin in their native\ncountry. Or, if their money is honestly earned, they do not want the Russian\nauthorities to find out that they are acquiring property abroad. Or both. In\nany case, by resorting to the “technical services” of the \u201cTroika\u201d\nsystem, they manage to bypass these problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the OCCRP and partner media investigations,\n“spare parts” and “consumer goods” are customary justification\nfor banking institutions, and in many cases, the shell companies also offer\nfake invoices. In fact, this is laundering of money of criminal origin, and in\nsome cases financial flows can be traced back to the originator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dirty money for the\npartners of the best man of influential Bulgarian politician<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Another company that often transfers money to Bulgaria,\nincluding payments for apartments, is MEISTER DEVELOPERS. It is well known from\na previous scandal involving two\nhundred million dollars in the Sheremetyevo Airport fuel fraud<\/a>. The\ninvestigation into this theft began on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s\npersonal order in 2009. According to Russian prosecutors, a significant amount\nof stolen money – over USD 60 million – went to this offshore company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The same company has paid the apartments in Chepelare of\nseveral Russians and has wired nearly EUR 100,000 for mysterious\n“marketing services” by SLE Group and its subsidiary LS Group. SLE Group<\/a> of Lachezar Bogdanov and Stanimir\nStoyanov \u201crose to fame\u201d over the \u201cDunes Gate\u201d scandal and their joint venture\nwith Todor Boyadzhiev, the best man of the Deputy Chairman of the ruling\nCitizens for European Development of Bulgaria party (GERB), then Deputy Prime\nMinister and Minister of Interior, Tsvetan Tsvetanov. However, the payments for\nthe marketing services have been made in 2009-2010 – two years before the\nscandal with the dunes. MEISTER DEVELOPERS has sent in total over EUR 420,000\nto Bulgarian accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Companies from the\nscandal Magnitsky<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2009, when he was still a lawyer, the local leader of the\nright-wing Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) in Burgas, Valcho Cholakov<\/strong>, received two tranches from LITON SECURITIES – EUR\n54,000 on June 6, 2012 as a payment under a preliminary contract and on July 9\n– EUR 141,655 under a contract from May 18, 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bivol contacted Valcho Cholakov, who said it was a lawyer’s\naccount. He did not want to reveal who this money was intended for, referring to\nthe lawyer-client secret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n LITON SECURITIES is part of the proxy network around DELCO\nNETWORKS S.A., with which Sergey\nRoldugin<\/strong>, the Russian cellist of Panama Papers, who is one of Putin\u2019s\noldest friends, has financial relations. Putin’s favorite cellist has received\nmoney from an offshore company at about the same time it was being used to\nsteal money from the Russian government in the notorious Sergei Magnitsky case,\nreveals an earlier investigation<\/a>\nby the OCCRP. Some of the USD 230 million stolen from the Russian Treasury,\ndiscovered by Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer working for Hermitage Capital, have\npassed through DELCO NETWORKS S.A.. Magnitsky died in custody in 2009 and gave\nhis name to the US Magnitsky\nAct<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The company EVIAC HOLDING LTD., registered in Belize, which\nhas also laundered\nmoney<\/a> from \u201cMagnitsky\u201d, has been especially active in Bulgaria. It has paid\nfor real estate and various services over EUR 1.5 million. The most intriguing\ntransfer is in the amount of EUR 55,000 for \u201cPetko Arnaudov-municipalityitet\nTsarevo Acc to Inv N201006-1 dd 04.06.10\u201d for the \u201cart-spatial registration of\na museum exhibition of the Historical Museum of Municipality Tsarevo\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The account number shows that this has been a payment to the\nmunicipality and not to its former Mayor Petko\nArnaudov<\/strong>. The town hall of Tsarevo ignored repeated inquiries by Bivol,\nsent to its official e-mail address, about what were the exact services or sponsorship\nof the museum, what is “art-spatial registration” and to whom exactly\nthe invoice had been issued. At that time, the Tsarevo museum was managed by\nPetko Arnaudov’s wife, Yagoda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another company that has laundered millions from \u201cMagnitsky\u201d\nalso has transactions to Bulgaria – ZARINA GROUP has transferred EUR 22,000 to\nthe account of H.B.V. in Raiffeisenbank. The noted reason is a loan\nagreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The former lawmaker from the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP)\nKrasimir Premyanov<\/strong> has received the\nmodest amount of EUR 5,000 for legal services under contract 18\/A0877834 from June\n24, 2010. They came from DONCASTER LIMITED, which is also financially linked to\nthe \u201cTroika\u201d. Premyanov was not found for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bulgarian Embassy in\nMoscow also sold \u201cspare parts\u201d and \u201cconsumer goods\u201d to the Laundromat<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Among the most bizarre bank transfers that Bivol discovered\nare the money for the Bulgarian Embassy in Moscow paid by the PHARMEL TRADE\ncompanies mentioned above and by INTERWEST ALLIANCE LIMITED.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These are eight transfers totaling USD 408,120.00, which the\nEmbassy has received between February 2006 and November 2007. Two contracts are\nlisted as grounds for the wires – CNTR 167 \/ SPAR-KY \/ 01 DD 06.02.2006 FOR\nSPARE PARTS and PMNT CNTR 072 \/ SPAR-KY03 DD 20.08.2006 FOR CONSUMER GOODS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the same period, INTERWEST ALLIANCE has managed to buy\nspare parts and apartments for EUR 320,374<\/strong>\nin Bulgaria and to spin EUR 6 million to and from other companies from the \u201cTroika\nLaundromat\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bivol sent questions to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA)\nabout exactly for what spare parts and merchandise our Embassy in the Russian\ncapital has received this money. The press office of the Ministry announced\nthat a probe has been ordered in connection with these data into the bank and\nthe Embassy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Regarding the\ninvestigation \u201cTroika\u201d: OCCRP\u2019s reporting partners on this project were ICIJ, the\nGuardian<\/a>, S\u00fcddeutsche Zeitung<\/a>, the\nBBC, The Globe and Mail, Newstapa, Hetq<\/a>, investigace.cz,\nPlatform Investico, Trouw, Groene Amsterdammer, Profil.at, El Periodico, Addendum<\/a>, Bivol, Berlingske<\/a>,\nthe Finnish Broadcasting Company<\/a>, 15min.lt<\/a>,\nKnack<\/a>,\nNovaya Gazeta, and Termedia.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Headline illustration: OCCRP<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" About EUR 130 million has been wired to Bulgarian accounts from more than 150 offshore companies associated with the \u201cTroika Laundromat\u201d \u2013 a money laundering system that has allowed corrupt…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45863,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_crdt_document":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","kia_subtitle":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[5542,5806],"tags":[9204,8322,5123,5559,9199,5415,9203,9202,9201,9198],"class_list":["post-45878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investigations-en","category-leading-en","tag-krasimir-premyanov","tag-mfa","tag-money-laundering-en","tag-petko-arnaudov-en","tag-properties","tag-real-estate-en","tag-russian-capital","tag-russian-property","tag-troika","tag-valcho-cholakov"],"yoast_head":"\n