Delyan Peevski, Bulgarian Oligarch, Exerts Influence Through Lawyers Pouring Millions into Reallocating Company
From Bivol
Aviora Consult, the legal firm servicing Delyan Peevski’s businesses and hiring high-level lobbyists to defend him against Magnitsky Act measures in the USA, has received over 19 million BGN from Peevski himself, from a company he owns and from tobacco producer Bulgartabac. Attorneys Sasho Angelov and Geno Andreev have then withdrawn a large part of the money in their personal capacity.
Five million BGN received from Bulgartabac is not included in the company’s annual financial reports. The money is most likely from a loan issued by the Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB). Peevski has paid the lawyers 1.7 million BGN in his personal capacity but he is not registered under Bulgaria’s VAT law. This has become clear from the company’s registers, which were seen by Bivol and are at the disposal of the National Revenue Agency. The data we have managed to acquire and investigate is not entirely complete but is quite detailed and sheds light on Peevski’s methods for exerting influence in various areas, businesses and institutions through individuals and companies loyal to him.
| Date | Code | Comapny | Note | Amount (BGN) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
05.01.2017
|
BG831636680 |
Bulgartabac Holding AD |
Services |
240,000 |
|
02.10.2017 |
BG831636680 |
Bulgartabac Holding AD |
Services |
200,000 |
|
28.03.2017 |
BG831636680 |
Bulgartabac Holding AD |
Services |
340,000 |
|
14.03.2017 |
BG831636680 |
Bulgartabac Holding AD |
Services |
200,000 |
|
04.10.2017 |
BG831636680 |
Bulgartabac Holding AD |
Services |
300,000 |
|
12.05.2017 |
BG811154751 |
Blagoevgrad-BT AD |
Services |
9,725,475 |
|
05.01.2017 |
BG831636680 |
Bulgartabac Holding AD |
Correction |
-40,000 |
|
30.08.2017 |
BG800727XXXX |
Delyan Slavchev Peevski |
Services |
150,000 |
|
15.08.2017 |
BG831636680 |
Bulgartabac Holding AD |
Services |
120,000 |
|
11.17.2017 |
BG800727XXXX |
Delyan Slavchev Peevski |
Services |
90,000 |
|
05/21/2018 |
BG800727XXXX |
Delyan Slavchev Peevski |
Services |
170,000 |
|
07/26/2018 |
BG800727XXXX |
Delyan Slavchev Peevski |
Services |
257,000 |
|
08/07/2018 |
550722XXXX |
Irena Angelova Krasteva |
Services |
7,000 |
|
12/14/2018 |
BG20253XXXX |
DCC Invest EOOD |
Services |
1,800,000 |
|
12/14/2018 |
BG800727XXXX |
Delyan Slavchev Peevski |
Services |
55,000 |
|
01/16/2019 |
BG800727XXXX |
Delyan Slavchev Peevski |
Services |
335,000 |
|
06/19/2019 |
BG800727XXXX |
BG800727XXXX |
Services |
130,000 |
|
06/25/2019 |
BG800727XXXX |
Delyan Slavchev Peevski |
Services |
160,000 |
|
06/23/2019 |
BG800727XXXX |
Delyan Slavchev Peevski |
Services |
55,000 |
|
06/18/2019 |
BG811154751 |
Blagoevgrad-BT AD |
Services |
5,000,000 |
|
12/19/2019 |
BG800727XXXX |
Delyan Slavchev Peevski |
Services |
340,000 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total |
|
19,634,475 |
|
|
|
Peevski |
|
1,749,000 |
|
|
|
Bulgartabac Holding AD |
|
1,360,000 |
|
|
|
Blagoevgrad-BT AD |
|
14,725,475 |
|
|
|
DCC Invest EOOD (Peevski) |
|
1,800,000 |
The money received by the legal firm comes from a total of 5 customers controlled by Delyan Peevski. Among them are Blagoevgrad BT, which paid Aviora 14.7 million BGN, Bulgartabak Holding with 1.4 million, DRC Invest (Doreco Commerce) with 1.8 million and Peevski himself with 1.7 million BGN. In the interval 2017-2019 Peevski personally paid Aviora 1,742,000 levs for their services. Companies linked to Peevski paid the legal firm a total of nearly 17.8 million levs.
Most of those substantial revenues likely come from loans received from the Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB), which has been issuing financial support to the Bulgartabac group since 2016. One of those companies – Blagoevgrad BT – has received a 126 million BGN loan from BDB, an investigation by Capital has revealed.
Delyan Peevski does not currently hold any official ownership in any of the companies in the Bulgartabac Holding group. In the past few years, however, he has been their owner and has legitimised millions through company shares and dividends. The state has never before taken the initiative to examine who is behind the offshore companies in control of 92% of the company’s shares. According to the 2018 shareholder book those are three companies based in UAE free zones: TI Holding FZE with 12.23%, Lawand General Trading FZE with 13.97%, Gifted Master LTD (Adjman) with 18.10%; and two more based in Lichtenstein: Woodford Establishment with 33% and Stiga Anstalt with 14.75%.
Over the years Bivol has built up the most substantial archive of investigations and publications on Bulgartabac‘s criminal privatisation and activities, its ties to Delyan Peevski and to political, economic, financial and criminal entities (see here). For years Bulgarian government institutions have placed a taboo over any inquiries or investigations into the story of Bulgartabac – the way the largest tobacco holding in Europe was privatised and then plundered. A comprehensive revision of the entire Bulgartabac saga would be the litmus indicating a shift in the deep behind-the-scenes-powers within the state and the unravelling of the main criminal networks of corruption and oligarchy in Bulgaria.
Information about payments to Aviora is easily traceable and the National Revenue Agency should be aware of the financial flows. Besides, Delyan Peevski in his personal capacity was not registered under the VAT Law after March 2018, which should have immediately flashed a red light at the NRA regarding his revenues. Before that date Peevski paid Aviora 240,000 BGN and after his VAT deregistration he paid a further 1.5 million BGN.
Magnitsky Case
It is notable that Aviora’s company revenue increased severalfold in 2017. The dramatic growth can also be seen in the annual financial reports submitted by the company.
2017 wasn’t just a year like any other for Peevski and Aviora. It was the year when the dossier under the Magnitsky Act was opened in the USA and the procedure to impose sanctions was first initiated. The legal defence of the then MRF member of parliament and local oligarch was entrusted to the American lobbying group BGR Government. The company is managed and consulted by former long-serving FBA agent and chief Thomas Locke. Locke himself is responsible for lobbying in favour of Delyan Peevski with the State Department, the Department of Justice, the Treasury and the National Revenue Service. The initial contract with BGR was negotiated by attorney Miglena Hristova, who has close ties to Peevski. Hristova has been a board member at Bulgartabac Holding, Lafka market, Blagoevgrad BT, Sofia BT and Shumen Tabac. The contract was signed by Paraskev Paraskevov – a former state security service officer, former deputy interior minister in Jean Videnov’s government and father of attorney Alexander Angelov. The contract provisions include regular monthly payments of 30,000 USD and the reimbursement of additional lobbying expenses. That means that within a year Peevski’s payments to the American lobbyists via Aviora must have grown to the amount of several hundred thousand dollars. The precise final amount would be very hard to estimate.
