He saw a conspiracy against the state and an attempt to destroy “one of the few working institutions – the prosecutor’s office”. Warn: I will not let this happen
The defendant for the bankruptcy of KTB Tsvetan Vassilev, the accused as a guarantor of murder and investigated for several others Krasimir Kamenov-Kuro and his man Tony Ivanov-Perfuma, the defendants for tax crimes and fraud, heads of Nexo Antoni Trenchev and Kosta Kanchev. All these heroes of recent years, investigated for various crimes, entered into a conspiracy “against one of the few working institutions in our country – the prosecutor’s office” (according to Geshev) and against the chief prosecutor himself. Moreover, some of them were actively looking for lobbyists from the USA to organize a campaign in America, in the EU countries, and in our country “to discredit and hinder the activities of law enforcement authorities”.
I see talk of reforms against which there is destruction, an attempt to destroy institutions such as the prosecutor’s office, which is one of the few working in the state. It’s my responsibility to make sure that doesn’t happen. I will not allow magistrates and colleagues from the Ministry of the Interior to be threatened. We need the Bulgarian institutions at the moment of the most unprecedented crisisIvan Geshev announced a little later.
In the complex plot presented by the prosecutor’s office, several lines and actors are intertwined (for Nexo see above, and for Boyko Rashkov and Mitko Karatista – below).
First thing in the morning, the state prosecution announced that
investigating an influence peddling gang
They released a new batch of chats between some of the actors. The aim was to discredit magistrates and police officers. The group operated from 2020 to March 24, 2023. This is one storyline. The main actors are Krasimir Kamenov-Kuro, who has been living in South Africa for years, runs the “Slatina” auction in our country, and a few days ago he was accused in absentia of having ordered the murder of the police officer Lyubomir Ivanov – Lyubo Police. It is unofficially claimed that Boyan Tabakov, accused of being an accessory to the murder of Lyubo Police, was in South Africa in February 2022, about a month before the shooting.
Curro is currently under investigation for numerous apparent murders over the past 15 years. So far, however, there is only one charge.
The other actor is the former banker Tsvetan Vassilev, who is being sued in absentia for the bankruptcy of KTB. Since the summer of 2014, Vasilev has positioned himself in Belgrade, but the Serbian court refused to extradite him to our country.
This group also included Dilian Georgiev, who is currently in custody, but for drug possession. The man from Ruse made a splash due to the case of blackmailing the honorary leader of the DPS Ahmed Dogan and the deputy Delyan Peevski for 12 million euros. In 2020, he was found guilty of having, in connivance with two Romanians, demanded the sum from Dogan and Peevski to have their names removed from a French report.
According to the investigators, there was direct communication between Dilian Georgiev and Tsvetan Vassilev – he went to Belgrade at least once a month.
The fourth in the group is Toni Ivanov-Perfuma, who was detained in Spain a week ago
At the request of the prosecutor’s office, he is to be forcibly brought to our country. He became famous in the summer of 2008 when he was pulled over with NSO lights in his car.
Ovidiu Semenescu, who was connected to the Romanian intelligence services, also played an important role in this conspiracy. He is wanted in the case of extortion of Dogan and Peevski.
What did the investigators find?
According to them, Congressman Warren Davidson’s letter to the US Treasury Secretary against Attorney General Ivan Geshev was available to Dilian Georgiev and BIRD journalist Dimitar Stoyanov at least 8 hours before it was distributed through the American’s Twitter account. In the letter, which was released on December 23, the congressman calls on the US Treasury Department to take action against Ivan Geshev for ignoring Magnitsky sanctions.
According to the investigators, Dilian Georgiev had the letter earlier and this confirms their thesis that it was prepared by Tsvetan Vassilev. And through an American lobbyist hired by the former banker, former Congressman Edward Royce, the letter was delivered to Davidson, who signed it and sent it to the Treasury Secretary.
Ed Royce and Warren Davidson are members of the Republican Party. Whether this is so, as our investigators believe, would be difficult to ascertain, for the two are unlikely ever to be questioned, and
lobbying is a perfectly legal medium in the US
Tsvetan Vassilev and his wife Antoinette benefited from it, and in 2022 they hired Ed Royce as their lobbyist. Shortly after Royce was hired, he bankrolled the re-election campaign of Davidson, who was re-elected to the US Congress in midterm elections late last year.
The second story line emerged Friday at noon. The chief prosecutor himself announced that the accused bosses of “Nexo” landed in Belgrade hours ago.
I have no doubt who they will be seeing. They gathered. Now I expect Bozhkov, maybe this Ovidiu from Switzerland, maybe your colleague Dimitar Stoyanov from BIRD, maybe some politicians and political parties to land and make a big operation. And to distribute their tasks – who will deal with the financing, who will deal with the media and compromising magistrates and working colleagues. Ah, I left out South Africa’s Krasimir Kamenov aka Kuro, maybe he’ll land in Belgrade too. This is of course a joke, commented Geshev.
And the names of Boyko Rashkov and Mitko Karatista popped up in the chats
The names of the former interior minister and current deputy from “We continue the change” Boyko Rashkov and the former owner of “Delta Guard” Dimitar Spasov, who became known as Mitko Karatista, also surfaced in the chats that the prosecutor’s office published on Friday.
The two are mentioned in messages that Dilian Georgiev, who is currently in custody for drug possession, exchanged with an as yet unidentified person. Spasov is referred to in the chat communication only as Karate.
According to the investigators, the reference to Boyko Rashkov is that by October 2021 he was expected to order the Ministry of Internal Affairs to take action regarding a person nicknamed Karatista. A week later, at the beginning of November 2021, the license of the security company “Delta Guard” was revoked.
The reason for the revocation of the license then is that an investigation for self-governance was launched against Spasov. He was charged on May 14, 2019, and had 30 days to terminate his involvement in the company. However, he did so two years later. This case is also very complicated because it went all the way to the Constitutional Court, which was appealed by three judges. Constitutional judges must say whether it is right to revoke a security company’s license before there is an effective sentence.
Antoni Trenchev and Kosta Kanchev landed in Serbia for hours, the prosecution wants to detain them
The heads of Nexo cryptobank, Antoni Trenchev and Kosta Kanchev, who are accused in absentia of tax and computer crimes and money laundering, have arrived in Belgrade in a few hours. Former banker Tsvetan Vassilev, accused of embezzling BGN 2.6 billion, has been living in the Serbian capital for almost 9 years.
The two landed at Belgrade airport on a flight from Dubai on Thursday at 11:05 p.m.
During the routine passport check of Trenchev and Kanchev, the Serbian border police saw that they were wanted by a European arrest warrant, as well as by Interpol.
In line with international cooperation, the Bulgarian Bureau of Interpol was notified on Friday before noon.
The Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office immediately sent a translation into Serbian of the warrant issued for the detention of Trenchev and Kanchev for 72 hours. However, it is not very clear whether the Serbs have respected the request of the Bulgarian state. The reason is that Antoni Trenchev and Kosta Kanchev explained during the inspection that they intended to leave Serbia already on Friday afternoon.
According to the investigators, it was entirely possible that the two, together with Tsvetan Vasilev, considered hiring American lobbyists to try to end the criminal cases against them in Bulgaria.
