l Businesswoman Nadezhda Batsanova
commanded a candidate for deputy,
municipal councilor and Roma torturer
l Witness with security from the Bureau
on defense to the Prosecutor General
Vasil Bozhkov’s party had a real chance to enter parliament if the criminal group for buying votes in its favor was not defeated, 24 Chasa has learned.
The detainees before the vote are the businesswoman Nadezhda Batsanova, who was a candidate for MEP in 2014, the 6th in the Blagoevgrad list of “Bulgarian Summer” Sergey Dimitrov, the municipal councilor from Rakovski Dimitar Topalov, who was deputy mayor of the city , and the Roma torturer from Plovdiv Asen Boshnakov. The four had to “invest” hundreds of thousands of levs to buy a vote, mainly in the neighborhoods of several cities.
“The financing of the group is from a person residing in a country outside the European Union. The money from this country was to be sent to Turkey and then transported by mules to Bulgaria. Receiving the money, the organizer of the group had the task to redistribute it to the participants, and they to distribute it to voters “, explained the scheme prosecutor Antoaneta Pancheva, without naming the party and its leader.
Nadezhda Batsanova is accused of organizing the scheme. She lives in Sofia and her family name is from Petrich. There is a hotel, gas station and cable TV. In 2014, he was a candidate for MEP from the BASTA party, led by former Minister of Agriculture in the first GERB government Miroslav Naydenov. The prosecutor’s office, the Ministry of Interior and the State Agency for National Security intercepted her conversations with one of the leaders of Vasil Bozhkov’s party, from whom she received instructions and who was supposed to give the money. There is information about her in the prosecutor’s office that
except by buying
the votes are
occupied and with
Organising
protests
The investigation into the vote trade begins in Plovdiv. According to him, data have been collected that Sergei Dimitrov is offering money for votes. However, he is a candidate for MP from the BNO party (“Bulgarian Summer”) in Blagoevgrad district. Due to his immunity, the case was sent to the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office.
Sergei Dimitrov is accused of being a member of the criminal group. In recent years, he has had in common with several parties, especially in elections, a 24 Chasa report showed. In 2015 he was an advocate for the BSP in the local elections in Plovdiv. After that he became a member of GERB and worked for the party for mayor and municipal council in 2019. He left the government a few months ago and became the founder of “Republicans for Bulgaria” by Tsvetan Tsvetanov. Along with him, the new party was recognized by Nadezhda Batsanova and her mother Dobrinka, but later everyone turned to Vasil Bozhkov’s “Bulgarian Summer”. Thus, Sergei Dimitrov became 6th in the list of the BNO mandate holder for Blagoevgrad.
The third participant in the vote-buying group is Dimitar Topalov from Rakitovo. He was deputy mayor of the city, nominated by Euroroma. In 2019 he was a candidate for mayor from Volia, but he only won a seat in the local parliament, he is still a municipal councilor. Dimitrov and Topalov are experts on Roma issues. The fourth member of the gang, Asen Boshnakov from Plovdiv, had a huge influence on the neighborhoods in the city under the hills.
In order to buy votes without being caught, Nadezhda Batsanova gave the men mobile phones and SIM cards. She gathered them at secret meetings in Sofia, Petrich, Karlovo, Plovdiv and other cities to coordinate their actions.
They acted from
February 6, c
the whole country,
and the investigation against them began on March 10. There is also a witness who told about the buying of the votes for “Bulgarian Summer”. He is under the protection of the Prosecutor General’s Office.
“The participants worked on several schemes – looking for influential people at the local level with the Roma population. They promised money for their votes. Different amounts were offered in different areas. In some places BGN 20, in others BGN 80. The voter cast a completed ballot, and handed over the blank ballot to the advocate, he filled it in and passed it to the next one, ”explained the spokesperson of the Chief Prosecutor Siika Mileva for the so-called an Indian thread on which the accused traded the vote.
In addition to money, the four also acted under the corporate scheme. They were looking for owners of large companies, they promised money and services to win the votes of the workers. The owner of a detergent factory, for example, met with Sergei Dimitrov, who promised him assistance in applying for EU programs. Nadezhda Batsanova financed the issuance of identity documents for workers with a promise to vote for “Bulgarian Summer”. The third scheme under which they planned to buy a vote is through advocates.
I should have
distribute on
BGN 100 each
from them,
and he should lead three voters each.
“Many addresses and cars were searched. Notebooks with notes and lists of future voters with their personal data were found. Phones and laptops were seized. Graphological expertise has been appointed for the authorship of handwriting in the notebooks “, said prosecutor Pancheva.
The BNO party, with which Vasil Bozhkov’s “Bulgarian Summer” ran in the elections, won 94,515 votes in the elections, or 2.95%. Despite the result, Bozhkov announced that he would ask for the vote to be canceled due to manipulations.
Apart from the group that was supposed to buy votes for Bozhkov, others were defeated, the prosecutor’s office said.
Usurers, smugglers, drugs, money laundering were identified, who on the eve of the election sought to secure the votes of a particular candidate, party or coalition.
Siika Mileva explained that there is a decrease in registered crimes due to the measures of the services. BGN 425 thousand were seized and another BGN 383 thousand were seized, with which voters for various political forces had to be bargained.
“There are 4 cases in the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office, which came from other regions in the country, because there are 5 accused candidates for deputies in them. The investigations are at the beginning, but there are enough witnesses questioned and phones and computers seized “, pointed out the head of the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office Iliana Kirilova.
From the SRS: they give me 200 thousand, I start buying great from Monday
Special intelligence tools were used to investigate the vote-buying group. Here are the dialogues conducted by the participants in the organization:
March 24
Sergey Dimitrov: We start firmly on Monday. They give me BGN 200,000 to start buying great, I give BGN 80 each …
March 27, at the restaurant
Male: Abe, these people will not spend for no money, and 2000 will be, well!
Participant 2: No, we will get two thousand votes. I know how to get them out. If they give me brochures at the last minute … I give them the brochures, I give them a thousand levs and they are ready. ”
Male: A thousand levs each?
Dimitar Topalov: Well how much, ha. How much is a thousand levs, brother?
Male: Well, a thousand levs are nothing!
Participant 2: You give them, they are 15-20 people, you give them 1000 BGN each … She should give them. I won’t even. And to give them brochures, to give them BGN 1,000 each. I don’t want anything from here. I will give them 2 from the municipality (of course), I will give him 1000 votes, they will get more down and that’s it. And without money? Who works, huh?
Male: But no one works without money.
Male: How many people have you tied up so far?
Sergey Dimitrov: We are over 40, over …
Male: Over 40 people. How much more will these people bring?
Sergey Dimitrov: But these are leaders. These are not people. They are bosses.
Male: Three or four will lead now.
Sergey Dimitrov: Yes.
Male: To say…
Sergey Dimitrov: 2000 Sandanski only he gave them to us, yes.
Conversation between males (M1 and M2) and the group leader (P)
March 24, 2021 in the home of Nadezhda Batsanova
Male: And for ****** how much do you think …? He how many, they are 500 people, he said. Well, probably 100-150 minimum. Don’t you take them without years there?
Nadezhda Batsanova: Yes, yes.
Male: Abe put them 200-300 people.
Nadezhda Batsanova: 300. He can’t 150. 300 he said he would take them where the adults are.
Male: They also have families there, this or that … And the Pomak will surely make 100 people … it will make money. At least.
Male 2: That’s why we will only touch for sure. When I tell you “Yes”, in the sense that things are with us, go meet the people. In a sense, then you can talk to them harder.
Male: In front of him?
Nadezhda Batsanova: Exactly. That is why I tell you, the best option is to give the man BGN 5,000 and tell him to raise his people. To drive them like ordinary citizens, where they go to vote.
March 24, 2021, again at Batsanova’s home
She: Let’s talk to this man of yours, where there are 150-200 people. To negotiate with him, for example to give him, if not, we are not allowed by advocates, ours to put. Let’s give him, for example, 3, 4, 5 thousand levs and he should give them, under a column, to go and vote only.
Male 2: Yes, but this will be, for example, in the evening or during the day. Not before giving.
Bacanova: No no no. When the protocol came out.
Male: Ah, yes.
Bacanova: But not BGN 100 per person. You know? That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Let’s give it to him, let him lift his retinue, and take them out under a column.
– .
