Millions worth of properties in central Sofia ended up in foreign hands for just BGN 50,000, it shows BBC investigation. There are contracts and marriage in the scheme and, according to the investigators, in both cases they are forgeries. The cheated come from a rich family of aristocrats, bankers, doctors, lawyers, artists.
The Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of the Interior halted the plan several years ago and the investigations continue.
According to the investigators, the organized criminal group was made up of six people and all accused of the plan, and the fraud was prepared for 3 years.
Prosecutors say the scheme wasn’t complicated, but it was consistent enough. The family tree starts with Miryanka Koeva’s husband, who dies and her inheritance is divided into three: his wife and two daughters.
In 2012 Miryanka died and Radka Elange and Lyubka Koeva inherited everything. The two sisters become the object of the deception. The deception with Lyubka comes to an end and with Radka it is over.
Typically, real estate scammers target victims who don’t maintain good contacts with their heirs or don’t have any. In this case, Radka has no children, she was born in 1937, lives abroad and has not returned to Bulgaria for more than 30 years. However, Lyubka has a son, Atanas Pavlovski, who has not maintained good relations with her mother in recent years. Suddenly, however, Athanas’s name disappears from the heirs’ certificate. It is unclear when, but it was probably done with the help of government officials. A police officer and a bank employee were also involved in the case.
The first thing scammers do is enter into contracts for the purchase and sale of inheritance rights. These contracts can range from preliminary to final if certain steps are followed and without both parties being present in court. This happens with Lyubka, and with Radka the contract remains preliminary. This is a BGN 7 million fraud, if Radka’s properties were also included the figure would be even higher. Under these contracts, a company bought all Lyubka properties for BGN 50,000. According to the documents, Lyubka married a man 20 years younger in Moscow. Just in case, there are enough documents, certificates and references that prove it is a fake marriage.
