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 Nikolaycho Gigov Has Tucked Away 75 Millions of Euro from the French Corvettes Bargain. Stanishev and Parvanov Have Broken Their Fast as well.
The businessman Nikolay Gigov tucked in commission for 75 millions of euro from the bargain with the French corvettes, which are to be constructed for the Bulgarian navy. This equals to 15 percent from the whole sum coming up to a total of 500 million of euro that Bulgaria will pay to France for the machines. The contract was signed by the Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev in June in Paris.
On the French part it was the President Nicolas Sarkozy who affixed his signature under it. According to people acquainted to the bargain, part of those 75 millions of euro went straight into the Prime Minister and President’s Swiss bank accounts. Rosen Karadimov also got his share as being a confidant of the Prime Minister and Chief of his Office as well.
Why Stanishev and Parvanov exactly? For the reason that they decided that Nikolaycho Gigov would be the one who would play the mediator in the bargain. No competition, no publicity … nothing. This is the second time when the owner of “Lokomotiv” FC has got millions of money from state business deals using such means. The first time was when he broke his fast from the bargain with the helicopters for the Bulgarian army, produced by the French company Eurocopter. Then only some millions were deposited into Parvanov’s bank account because he used his authority to take the role of lobbyist for the French equipment and Stanishev had not become a Prime Minister yet. Nikolay Svinarov, the Minister of Defence at that time, also got his big share then and the same holds true for his political patron, Simeon Sakskoburggotski.
Why Nikolay Gigov exactly (Nikolaycho according to the registration in his identity card)?
Here you are some unknown and carefully kept in secret facts from the businessman’s biography, a person is venerable and highly honoured in some circles and he has unrestricted 24-hour access to the offices of the Prime Minister and President.
N. Gigov was born in Sofia. He has acquired a diploma for higher education from the university in Blagoevgrad. He was a football player in the period 1982 -1989. The he mysteriously disappeared into the USA and got back some years later without having realized anything fruitful or taken up some business activity. Indeed, he got really well orientated into the environment in Bulgaria and for short period of time he managed to creep into the graces of the political elite of the day then. He was seen quite often with Dimitar Ludzhev, Dimitar Popov and Aleksandar Karakachanov. His best man was Andrey Lukanov, to whom he was a kind of advisor. In 1993 he was included as a shareholder in Agricultural and Investment Bank (AIB). He received assistance in his doings from the wrestlers and bandits, belonging to the “777” Club in Plovdiv, who joined together in sports lines. The following year Gigov became owner of the “Lokomotiv – Sofia” FC in quite a mysterious way.
At this stage he is part of the management and shares interests in the following companies: “Delta – G” Ltd. As a private owner of “Air Eagle” he owns 50% from the company’s shares; “Kodem” Ltd. – he owns 54% from the company’s shares; “Delta TV” JSC – Gigov is a member of the management board and owns 66% from the assets of the company; he is also a member of the board of directors of the Bulgarian football league, etc. Back in the 1990’s Gigov became subject of operational investigations because his name was associated to many criminal acts. And then he got connected to the notorious Galev brothers – Plamen Galev and Andrey Hristov because of whom the ex-Minister of the Interior, Rumen Petkov, burned away recently. Adel Sarkis joined the group formed, too. At that time the Galev brothers were in charge of one of the structures that controlled the production of synthetic drugs. Adel Sarkis was in charge of the drugs traffic and distribution. By the way, he was not just anybody. He was head of the Lebanese President, Amin Dzhamayel’s security and he is still part of the Lebanese secret services. He was sent to Bulgaria under the cover of a trader but instead of that, he took up providing money for the “Christian militias”. During the Lebanese civil war, Sarkis worked for the French secret services and it got to the knowledge of Interpol even. Probably, that was the reason why he immigrated to France in the 1990’s and some years later he came to Bulgaria to have an important task done in relation to the drugs contraband. At that same time he got in touch with Nikolaycho Gigov and the Galev brothers. It was supposed that Gigov was attracted to collaborate for the French secret services as well. Bulgarian information sources consider that our secret service agents got on their minds the thought about those contacts but no more serious investigations followed because there was a “shelter” of political protection above Gigov. He always got warned about workings-out and investigations concerning his companies.
For a certain period of time the Galev brothers even were security guards of Gigov and Sarkis – to be more precise, it was the period when Gigov was reigning as the king of captagon in Bulgaria. The production was realized in the Middle East. At that point he tried to swindle the Galev brothers from Dupnitsa with some money and they cut their relations with him. The disruption was irreversible; though, they did not settle their accounts in the usual way for the underground world. However, close people to Gigov still remember that he was scared to death they would revenge him because he tricked them.
In 1997 the National Service for Fight against Organized Crime disclosed the “Opitzvet” affair – the production of huge amounts of synthetic drugs in the village of Opitzvet in the vicinity of Sofia. In the course of the investigation it came out that the main production investor was Adel Sarkis. He used to meet every single day with an official from Gigov’s firm, i.e. “Delta – G”, and with Gigov himself. However, the disclosures were covered and the action at law sank deep into the maze of the Bulgarian jurisdiction.
At the same time another of Gigov’s contacts was caught out – it was one to the Serbian mafia boss Sretan Yosich. The same person, who was arrested and got an order for expulsion from Bulgaria in May, 2004 and who was considered of having received an order to eliminate the Secretary-General of the Ministry of the Interior – Boyko Borisov at that time. And if it was really so, then Gigov knew the particulars of the assault plotted, experts from the secret services think. However, it still remains unknown whether Borisov suspected about that. In 1996 Gigov’s firm “Delta – G” was licensed for trade with weapons, having the protection of the executive bodies of authority in the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Defence. And in order not to think that we state merely vain suspicions, we will only mention that after having vacated their positions, people moved to work for the quoted firm, among whom we can distinct the names of Paraskev Paraskevov - vice-Minister of the Interior, Vasil Berberov – Deputy Chief of the counter-espionage, Dimitar Mitkov – vice-Minister of Defence and secret service agent of long standing, Stoycho Petrov – Chief of the National Security Service and many others. In 1993 “Delta - G” was illegally financed with a loan coming at the sum total of 200 000 dollars from DZI bank in exchange for property that was not owned by it. We are speaking of 10 tons of zirconium, canalled in the country by provisional import without having a final addressee mentioned. Giving bribes to customs officials and cops, Gigov arranged a prolongation of the deadline for the provisional import. Many other infringements followed as well as attempts to sell the zirconium abroad, having already got the money from the bank but the prosecutor’s office “let slip” all of that. In fact, it is not difficult to suggest that his friendship with the prosecutor Mihail Doychev played a significant part in the whole affair. Gigov was close to the magistrate Angel Ganev, Chief of the “Inquiries and Investigations” Department. Why the two magistrates shut their eyes to it – everyone has the reason to judge on their own. It is only well known that Ganev had been travelling on many times but he did not have the financial resources for those trips.
In 1997 Gigov tried to give a bribe to an official from the National Security Service and he offered him an automobile with the sole purpose of having the investigation against him ceased. In 1994 by operating through an offshore company together with Antoni Naumov and Docho Shikov, Gigov sold a great number of weapons to the former Yugoslav Republic thus violating the embargo. As a curious point from those years could be distinguished the coming to Bulgaria of the Syrian arms trader Nazem Khaled, who settled the matters concerning the visit of the Syrian Minister of Defence - Nazem Tlas, and his brother, Nadim Tlas, who was the Chief of the Syrian secret services. The aim was to arrange a contract for repairs on the Syrian planes MIG-23 in Bulgarian aviation factories. Gigov organized a secret meeting of the Syrians with the Member of Parliament from the Bulgarian Socialist Party, Krasimir Premyanov, as well as with the Minister of Industry, Kliment Vuchev. The last one who received them was Dimitar Pavlov, the Minister of Defence during the “Videnov” cabinet.
In 1998 the “Elmet Engineering” company tried to export illegally to Serbia two motors of MIG-29, which were formerly imported to Bulgaria as contraband. At that time the licence of the company was taken away and the goods were condemned. And what do you think happened then? – Instead of having sentences passed on, the engines were given back to the company. The firm on its part sold them quite cheap to Gigov’s “Delta – G” company which on its turn disposed them to the Ministry of Defence for 2.3 millions of dollars. Meanwhile, the Bulgarian secret services came across many Gigov’s violations of law in lines to illegal weapons traffic. Then he took up got common business with the Serb Miodrag Pushtitsa. Together with him Gigov sold rifle guns, ammunition, “Luna” missiles, “Neva” missiles and shells from Russia in the former Republic of Yugoslav. They were firstly sent to Bucharest, from where Gigov transported them to the city of Bielina in Yugoslavia. And Gigov together with Slobodan Teshich sold arms to Liberia and Siera Leone – it is a real contraband, isn’t it? Teshich received an entrance prohibition to Bulgaria. On a number of times the American Services referred to their Bulgarian partners in relation to the contraband traffic; however, in Sofia no one took up anything against Gigov. Furthermore, he became active and soon made friendship with Zhelko Razhnyatovich – Arkan – a famous nationalist and leader of extramilitary groupings in Serbia. The story follows the usual scenario of the Hollywood movies: the two of them organized gun traffic, directed from Bulgaria to Yugoslavia. For that purpose they even used the bus of the “Loko” FC for the team played football matches on friendly terms in Serbia then.
Gigov transferred the dirty millions gained to France and after some time passed, he bought luxury real estates. Such expensive airs and graces were purchased in Monaco by dummy tools in order to wash that money. Gigov even bought a 6-room apartment in his name in Paris.
Meanwhile, the licence of Gigov’s firm was cut off but via the intercession of the Minister of the Interior - Bogomil Bonev at that time, and it was restored. Nickolaycho’s arms odysseys continued in Turkey as well, where he imported Bulgarian weapons and machinery from our munitions factories with dying functions. He was helped in his doing by an ex-colonel from the Turkish army and the Bulgarian military attaché, Mitko Gambovski, who was also an official from our secret services. The Russian Vladimir Muchkaev took part in many of the bargains, too. Weapons were sent to Georgia, as well as to other countries that used to be a part of the ex-Soviet Union. The person to be held responsible for the prosecution’s shelter of protection over that traffic was the vice-Chief Prosecutor of State, Hristo Manchev. Gigov was also on friendly terms with the Chief Prosecutor, Nikola Filchev, who did not touch him for anything.
And so, we reach to the year 2004 when Nikolaycho Gigov was approved and chosen by the President Parvanov to play the role of a middleman in the bargain with Eurocopter for the “Kougar” helicopters. Gigov showed off in front of close people to him that the thankful Frenchmen paid him the sum of 900 000 euro and it was only for he being elected. Apart from that, he put away another 30 millions as a commission, which he divided between the other players in the bargain and himself. By the way, it has been rumoured in the services that the female chief of a big newspaper received a considerable sum of money because she made the established the contact between Gigov and the high commander-in-chief, and throughout a few months’ period she used the media for the purpose of advertising the bargain as a successful shot. However, this is far from the truth for the mere reason that our army does not need 33 machines at all. For the sake of the comparison let’s state that the Turkish army has bought 30 helicopters for its needs. And apart from that, it came out that the equipment of the first machines, which already came into use in our country, was not full and some additional payments should be made in order to have them completely equipped. Gigov also works with Russian arms companies. He got in touch with them using the help of the former Minister of Defence, Mikov, and that of General Lyuben Gotsev – ex-Minister of the Exterior.
Presently, Gigov takes advantage of absolute immunity. His new protector is the Chief Prosecutor of State – Boris Velchev. However, the truly high protections come on the part of the Prime Minister and the President of State.
That is why it does not come as a surprise at all that the football player from the past with a diploma for higher education from the South-West University was chosen for middleman in the bargain for the French corvettes. The fat commissions have already been distributed and received. And to cap it all, the machines themselves are going for construction in the year 2011.
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Google Cache. Ognyan Stefanov is first mentioned in the comments on this article on 5th of August 2008!
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