The arrested man is believed to be the final recipient of the money from the illegal schemes
The CDCOC has detained a man in Sofia who is suspected of being the ultimate recipient of money from illegal schemes in the construction of the Hemus Motorway. He is currently in the custody of the Sofia Police Department, BNR reports. Horizon learned from its sources that the man’s identity had been established some time ago. The detainee is expected to be charged later today.
In November, the investigative site bird.bg announced that the bum Krassimir Mitrikov from the Montana village of Zlatiya managed to withdraw over BGN 18 million from the money for Lot 5 of the Hemus Motorway, after which he died from Covid. The information was also confirmed by Interior Minister Boyko Rashkov. The investigation concerns a man who lived extremely poor in the Montana village of Zlatia. He was registered as a proxy for a hollow company used in the scheme to drain millions for the highway. Mitrikov’s neighbors say that before he died he boasted that he expected to be paid BGN 20,000.
It is not yet clear who the final recipient of the millions of levs in cash that were paid in advance for the construction of the highway. The Ministry of Interior revealed that BGN 60 million, received for Lot 5 of the Hemus Motorway, were withdrawn in just one day from a bank without prior request, in bags and sacks. According to investigators, the scheme was implemented through a buffer company, which aimed to sever the link between the company that signed the construction contract and the final contractors. “The buffer company immediately transferred the money to accounts created for this purpose by hollow companies registered to socially weak and low-literate people, most of them criminally charged with crimes of a general nature,” said Interior Ministry Chief Secretary Petar Todorov.
The hollow companies in question were registered a few days earlier with a capital of BGN 2 each – without any staff, equipment or opportunities to build a highway. “These people have no idea that they have such companies, they have been summoned for coffee, they have signed documents without knowing which ones. The same people have signed powers of attorney to third parties, also criminally manifested and also established,” Todorov said.
The contracts for LOT 5 have been concluded mainly with the company “Vodno stroitelstvo-Blagoevgrad”. The company has a contract dated May 22, 2020 for the temporary provision of vehicles, machinery and equipment. The contract does not specify the final price and the exact amount of activities, and the payment is made on the basis of proposed unit prices. For the same LOT 5 with “Vodno stroitelstvo-Blagoevgrad” there is a second contract of the same date – May 22, 2020, worth BGN 97,800,013, with subject “delivery of materials and products”. The real owner of “Water Construction – Blagoevgrad” is Viktor Velev, manager of “Groma Hold”, who is the supervisor of LOTA. According to Free Europe, he was among those arrested by police for 24 hours.
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