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© Anelia Nikolova
Maria Filipova during the hearing before the deputies of the Budget Committee in April 2019.
Two people are involved in conversations published Friday morning between an 11-man businessman, Vasil Bozhkov, and a person registered on his phone as Vladi Goranov (probably Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov). The conversations mention “the girl” and “Sasho”.
A few hours after the text message was broadcast, there is no confirmation of the authenticity of the correspondence, but there are many coincidences and contexts with which they can actually relate to the people mentioned by Bozhkov. And the Finance Ministry told Dnevnik only that they would not comment on the matter.
Until now, it has not been denied that there is such an exchange of messages, nor that it is not true that these are two presidents of the gaming commission.
According to Bozhkov’s own explanations of the messages exchanged the “girl” is Maria Filipova, President of the State Commission of Games of Chance of February 8, 2018, currently Vice-President of the Commission of Financial Supervision. If the text messages were correct, Goranov gave him “valuable instructions” for a Bozhkov-related case (it’s unclear what, but the events occurred in late March 2018).
In their conversations, Bozhkov called “Sasho” Alexander Georgiev – Chairman of the Gambling Commission from April 25, 2019 to February 2020, Deputy Director of the National Revenue Agency from May 2017 to April 2019. Goranov assures him in mid-January of this year that he will speak to he “so as not to mix things up” – the inspection at the gambling commission and its routine work, about which Bozhkov asks – “The commission sabotages us. You said it or your boss does it on his own.”
The path of the “girl” from the gaming commission to the financial supervision commission
In February 2018, Vladislav Goranov replaced commission chairman Ognemir Mitev (accused of official crimes in the Bozhkov case, who claims he does not know the businessman), naming lawyer Maria Filipova instead.
Filipova, 33, is a lawyer who has dedicated her career mainly to public administration. – at the Registration Agency (for several months in 2011), the Privatization Agency (for several months in 2012), the Ministry of Justice (from June 2012 to April 2015), and Ministry of Finance (there she was chief expert in the Legal Directorate from April 2015 to November 2017 according to her biographical reference). After that, she was for a short time senior legal adviser to the Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB) and then chaired the gaming commission.
Filipova’s name was mentioned by Vasil Bozhkov’s former partner, Tsvetomir Naidenov, who in late 2019 began speaking publicly against the businessman, accusing him of threatening to kill him to the point of being a “serial rapist”. Naidenov spoke in a television interview about the former heads of the Gambling Commission, who had a close relationship with the owner of Nove Holding. Why didn’t you ask Dimitar Terziev (former head of gaming regulator) how many times he came to Nove Holding’s office, he told BTV, adding that all the regulator heads without Maria Filipova and Kaloyan Krastev came to the office. In fact, former partner Tsvetomir Naydenov “saved” just the two of them with his testimony on the air. Naydenov was one of the senders of the signals against Bozhkov in December 2019. He is also a key witness in the investigations against the businessman. from Minister Goranov, stating that fi The Minister of Finance did not know how to pay taxes on gambling and this was just information in the gambling commission.
Of all the former presidents of the Gambling Commission in the last 5 years. only Filipova has not been charged. The prosecution did not publicly mention her name as a possible accused or as a witness in the case (it is not clear if she was questioned).
Last spring, Maria Filipova became head of investment supervision at the Financial Oversight Commission., and his place was taken by Alexander Georgiev. (Details of the castles in the FSC, a detailed analysis of how GERB consolidated its control over the commission with the new appointments, of which it is a part – read in “Capital”).
In her speech to the Budget Committee deputies in April 2019 (when she was heard for the FSC position), Filipova announced an even more difficult course for unlicensed investment intermediaries trying to work in the Bulgarian market, and She said she was ready to seek cooperation with international institutions for the protection of the capital market and consumers from the negative aspects associated with the UK’s departure from the European Union.
In her official presentation on the FSC website it is written that “during her presidency in the Gambling Commission, Maria Filipova controls general activity, manages, coordinates and controls the implementation of the administration’s functions.”
When electing her as a member of the FSC, Goranov applied a reference to her candidacy (see end of text). In it he writes:
Indicative of her activity is that immediately after her appointment, Maria Filipova initiated changes to the SCG Rules of Procedure (in May 2018) to strengthen control over gambling and increase the revenue from state fees and the sanctions imposed on gambling operators, as a new specialized unit “Licensing and Control Activity” was established.
It is now apparent from the allegations against Bozhkov that even during his tenure, the commission made a “mistake” (in Goranov’s words) by accepting Bozhkov’s statements for the taxation of gambling companies.
Sasho has been charged with a misdemeanor
On February 1, Alexander Georgiev was charged with a misdemeanor and later released on bail from BGN 40,000. A spokesman for the attorney general explained that he had confessed that he had “sponsored Vasil Bozhkov’s business”. This is the second accused head of the gaming commission after Ognemir Mitev. However, Georgiev was released, and Mitev, who has no information so far, has admitted that, while observing the move, he claimed that he did not know Bozhkov.
Alexander Georgiev was appointed by Vladislav Goranov as chairman of the Gambling Commission in April 2019. Before that, Georgiev was deputy director of the National Revenue Agency, in whose system he had worked for years.
© State Gambling Commission
Alexander Georgiev was accused of “sponsoring Bozhkov’s gambling business” while he was chairman of the gambling commission.
He has many years of experience in the income management system, he is a lawyer by education. In 2008 he was appointed Deputy Director of the Appeals and Compliance Management Directorate of the National Revenue Agency – Sofia. Since 2009 he directs the structure, which is one of the most important in the revenue agency. In 2017, he was promoted to Deputy Director of the National Revenue Agency.
After Georgiev was charged, Goranov temporarily appointed his chief of staff, Georgi Yordanov, to his post on the Gambling Commission, until a post was found. He is currently in office.
More details about the messages.
From the extended correspondence is understood at least two meetings between Bozhkov and the recipient “Vladi Goranov”. On the one hand, Goranov promises to see you as soon as you “return from skiing,” and the other is for May 29, 2018: 5 p.m.
Last week, after an interview in which Bozhkov said that he had met Vladislav Goranov many times and had contacted him by phone and by message, the finance minister confirmed that they had seen others with successful businesses and left the impression. . that these meetings were in his office. However, he said they had no effect because Bozhkov did not get the changes to the gambling law he wanted.
Goranov claims that he did not know about the lowest taxation of instant lottery games (ticket debugging) in the past 5 years and that it was a “mistake” made in coordination between commission officials and Bozhkov companies.
It is not clear then what “valuable instructions” were given in February 2018 to the president of the commission, for those of January of this year it is understood that it should not interfere with the routine work of these companies.
More defendants worked in the Gambling Commission
The special prosecution carried out a public operation in January, during which it searched the State Gaming Commission. Documents were later seized, and later several people working on the commission were charged with official crimes related to “sponsoring Bozhkov’s business.”
Among them is the ex-president of the commission, Ognemir Mitev. In front of journalists in early February, prosecutor Tihomir Stoev commented that Mitev was an “instrument” of the organized criminal group due to the “official capacity he had as president of the agency” and in which he helped “for criminal purposes” of the group.
“In my opinion, he did it quite deliberately. One argument for this is the fairly long period in which it happened. It happened throughout the period in which he led the state structure, throughout the period he consistently breached his obligations,” he explained. . then the accuser.
Among the accused are two members of the commission. Plamen Georgiev was a member of the regulatory body at the time it was headed by Ognemir Mitev, who is also among the detainees and defendants. Since last year, Todor Markov has been the head of the Control Activity Department.
However, according to the defense, from 2014 to 2019 (when, according to the prosecution, Bozhkov’s criminal group was operating), Markov was a minor expert and, as such, performed quite administrative functions, and was in no way able to influence at work of the members of the gaming commission.
He then told the court that he did not know Vasil Bozhkov or the people close to him. According to the state indictment, Markov assumed the position of department head precisely because of his contacts with Bozhkov. He told the court that he was not to blame for what was happening in the country.
What is written in the text messages between Bozhkov and Goranov: read here
How Goranov appointed Maria Filipova as head of the gambling commission: read here
Who did Goranov appoint after Alexander Georgiev? Read here
About the accusations and the arrest against the former head of the gaming commission Ognemir Mitev – read here
Bozhkov is tolerated by the gaming commission, but not by the government, Menda Stoyanova thinks, here
For arrests of other members of the gaming commission, read here
