Teneva Gate: Burgas Property Acquisitions of Judge Vesselina Teneva also Raise Questions about Trading Influence and Origin of Funds Mind the horns!

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View at the Burgas Bay from the seaside property of Judge Teneva (Google Maps)

One of the four properties, which judge Vesselina Teneva received as donation from her aging mother Mariyka, is a land plot in the attractive villa zone “Rosenets.” Bivol traced the history of the transaction, which turned out to be a lengthy real estate saga.

Under the socialist regime, the plot was given for use to Yordan Tenev (father of Vesselina Teneva) as agricultural land – vineyard. In 1995, Tenev filed an application with the municipality to buy the plot under the then effective Law on Agricultural Land.

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Photo of the property by Google Maps

The municipality, however, found no reason to sell the lucrative property that is located in the heights above the Burgas Bay, to the right of the road to Sozopol and offers a unique combination of forest park and sea. Tenev got a refusal.

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The villa zone Rosenets and the approximate location of the property (Google Maps)

Three years later, in 1997, the daughter of Yordan Tenev – Vesselina became supreme judge at the Supreme Administrative Court, VAS. On March 9, 1998, Tenev submitted to the Burgas court a claim against the municipality in which he insisted that the property should be sold to him. On July 12, 1999, a panel, chaired by Iveta Ivanova decided the case in Tenev’s favor and required the Municipality to proceed on his application to buy the property.

The municipality did not rush to satisfy the court’s rule and in 2000 even listed the terrain as municipal property.

Three years later, in 2003, Yordan Tenev passed away. His successors did not abandon the pursuit to acquire the property and continued the battle with the municipality to sell it to them. In 2004, Mariyka Teneva sent a reminder letter and in 2005, the fight for the property was joined by

Her Heirs – Senior Magistrates

Vesselina Teneva, judge at VAS, Fani Naydenova – Teneva, also a judge at VAS, and their mother Mariyka Teneva who was 84 years old then, submitted a new application, presenting the so-called “heirs” document. These are not all the magistrates in the family – the husband of Fanny Naydenova – Teneva, Georgi Naydenov, is a prosecutor at the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office.

This time the magistrates got what they wanted. The case was reported at a meeting of the Municipal Council of Burgas by Mayor Yoan Kostadinov and a decision to sell the property was made. The argument was that a shack was built on the terrain that was presented by the heirs as legitimate building, which in turn, according to the Municipal Property Act and an ordinance of the municipality, gave them the right to purchase the land.

It is important to note that the expropriation procedure was initiated under the old Law on Ownership and Use of Agricultural Land, but it was finalized under the Municipal Property Act, which is a different law altogether.

The municipal land was appraised at around 14 euros per square meter – a price several times lower than the current market price of a terrain in regulation at the time and for this area, which is considered very attractive.

On December 27, 2006, the property was transferred to Maryika Teneva and her two daughters, the judges, and on January 17, 2007, the Mayor issued an order for the land plot to be written off as municipal property.

A few months later, in August 2007, the heirs transferred to Mariyka Teneva their shares in the property, and days later, on September 4, 2007, Mariyka donated the entire property to her daughter Vesselina Teneva.

Strictly personal property relations?

So far, the caring mother had provided her daughter, a supreme magistrate, with properties just fine – two apartments in Sofia and land in a villa zone. The only remaining thing was to secure for her a separate dwelling in the city. Just one day after the donation of the property in Rosenets, on May 9, 2007, Mariyka Teneva bought an apartment in a luxury building in the center of Burgas for only 8500 euros.

The company “Domino” Ltd., which constructed the building on 7 “Democracy” street has sold similar apartments during the same period in the same building, but they are listed as material interest at nearly 100000 levs. Prices of such properties in Burgas at that time exceeded 800 euros per square meter. This indicates that the transaction of granny Mariyka was declared with a fictitious price.

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In this building, Mariyka Teneva bought an apartment of 85 square meters for 17000 levs in 2007.

A year later, the apartment on 7 “Democracy” street was donated to judge Vesselina Teneva. This deal does not fit the explanation that the applicant for the post of Chief Judicial Inspector has given to the Ethics Committee of the Supreme Judicial Council. According to the site “Sudebni Reportaji (Court Reports), the purpose of the purchases-donations transactions in Sofia, revealed earlier by Bivol, was to disinherit the daughter of Teneva’s husband from another marriage. In this case, we have a property worth at least 50000 euros, which was bought by someone outside the family. Again the question arises how she got the money for this apartment, especially in the light of the statement of Member of the Parliament Maya Manolova, who nominated Teneva:

“Your question how the mother of judge Teneva got the money for such purchases is ridiculous. Oh, please, it is clear that the woman had no money and she has not paid these amounts; this is a family arrangement. And it is permitted by law. This is admissible. Dozens of Bulgarian families do the same thing,” Manolova on Nova TV.

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