Ukrainians and Moldovans named by witnesses by the heads of an illegal cigarette factory in the village of Trud



[ad_1]

ALEXANDER ARABADJIEV

The Anti-Corruption Commission (KPKONPI) is filing a lawsuit against businessman Alexander Arabadjiev from Plovdiv for 420,000 BGN, two cars and a property, the institution announced on Wednesday. Arabadjiev is charged as a participant in a criminal group organized for the production and distribution of cigarettes without special labels. It is about the broken at the beginning of July last year. a factory in the town of Trud, in Plovdiv, which investigators insisted was the most modern in recent years, and the treasury has suffered tens of millions in activity. Later, 13 people were arrested: Ukrainians working in the factory and 4 Bulgarians. One of them was Alexander Arabadjiev, but the court released him without pre-trial detention, unlike the others. His cousin Anton Arabadjiev and Ivaylo Kosturski, both from Plovdiv, were found wanted.

Only 5 months after the CDCOC and the prosecution entered the factory in the town of Trud, the workers and four Bulgarians pleaded guilty and reached agreements with the prosecution. The foreigners received suspended sentences. The Bulgarian participants, Krassimir Venkov, Stoyan Baidanov, Gradimir Dakov and Kaloyan Berberov, each received 1 year in prison and are now free.

In the case of the Trud village factory, another lawsuit was recently filed against three people: Alexander Arabadjiev, Anton Arabadjiev and Ivaylo Kosturski. All three are accused of participating in the leadership of a criminal group that operated from early 2019 to July 4 of this year, but no one has been named as a leader. They did not plead guilty, as did the workers captured at the beginning, it was made clear at the hearing of the case against them 2 weeks ago. Several witnesses were then questioned in the case of the destroyed factory: the owner, the tenant and the convicted workers. They all insisted that they did not know the three defendants.

It turns out that the room in which the factory worked belongs to the architect Nikolay Bogdanov, who is the son of businessman Petko Bogdanov. The two told the court that they bought the property parcel and built the room for investment purposes. When it was ready, it was leased to the company of 48-year-old Krassimir Venkov. They signed a contract in April 2019, 3 months before the factory on their property was demolished. They did not receive a single lev of rent because they insisted that the money be transferred by bank transfer, and Venkov was waiting for a tranche from abroad. The Bogdanovs had no idea what was going on on their property.

Venkov told them

what will there be

dry fruits

The two have not been tried. They do not know Anton Arabadjiev, Alexander Arabadjiev and Ivaylo Kosturski. The room’s tenant, Krassimir Venkov, was sentenced to one year and three months in prison in the first case. He said that he had lived in Italy for a long time. A friend of his, the Moldovan Valeri, offered to recycle the tobacco machines. He told him to find a room. Valeri sent the Ukrainian Sasha to Bulgaria to approve the room Venkov liked. A little later the machines and people from outside came and assembled them. Venkov also said that he learned of the cigarette production 15 days after the start of the activity. Sasha manufactured the illegal products by truck. The mysterious Ukrainian, as well as the Moldovan Valeri, are not among the defendants and witnesses in the two cases of the illegal factory. Krassimir Venkov said he knew Alexander Arabadjiev from a park in Plovdiv, where they both walked their children, but he had nothing to do with the factory.

Another witness in the second factory case, who was convicted in the first, is Stoyan Baidanov. He is close to the property owner Petko Bogdanov and has been on the site since the beginning of its construction. When tenant Venkov arrived, they met and he offered to stay. Baidanov kept the courtyard. He did not care what was done inside the room. He does not know any of the three defendants. The same said another of the condemned, Gradimir Dakov, who has already pleaded guilty and has served his sentence. He moved the cigarettes from room to room down the hall. From there they were loaded onto a truck, but Dakov did not see the next level people.

The convicted Kaloyan Berberov was also questioned in the case against the Arabadjievs and Ivaylo Kosturski. He only knew Kosturski from a room where they played sports together. He also claims that it has nothing to do with the cigarette factory. Berberov was involved in the plan of Krassimir Venkov, who sent him to pick up workers from Ukraine by bus. They were waiting for him at a hotel in Hissarya. The case will continue in the Specialized Criminal Court with the questioning of the CDCOC police officers who worked on the investigation. The main witness Milen Paunchev, known in Plovdiv as the poor millionaire, will also be questioned. For years, Paunchev has been in conflict with Anton Arabadjiev and his cousin Alexander over his inherited property, which he claims was taken from him for fraud, but there is no proof yet.



[ad_2]