The temptation called boards of state-owned energy companies turned out to be irresistible for the current rulers in Bulgaria. Several activists of the socialist party, who could not get into the lists of parliamentary candidates or in the ranks of the executive power, now have found a warm and cozy haven in one of the best paid companies in the Bulgarian economy. Some of them are known to us ad nauseam from the recent past, others are not so popular, but apparently they have stable relationships.
Traditionally, the biggest magnet for board aspirers from the party circles is the NPP Kozloduy. After all, this is the company which provides over 30% of electricity in the country each year to procure hundreds of millions of levs, and for the wages and fringe benefits received there regular Bulgarian citizens can only dream of. In short, on 12 December last year, the Board of Directors of the plant was increased from three to five people. CEO Ivan Genov and his colleagues Georgi Hristosov and Alexander Nikolov maintained their positions, but it turned out that after Marina Armutlieva, which at the time of GERB was Chairman of the Board,
NPP will again have a specialist in ecology.
One of the two new members is the BSP party functionaries from the Vratsa region Georgi Bojinov. For many years he was a member of parliament from the socialist party, one of its most prominent experts on environmental issues and was even president of environment committee of the National Assembly. After the „lifting procedure“ in the ranks undertaken by leader Sergey Stanishev before the last parliamentary vote, Bojinov fell out of the lists. It turns out that this was a short leave now he will participate in the leadership of one of the largest energy companies in the country.
Biggest enigma is another new face on the board of the plant – Jacquelin Joseph Cohen. A check in the information system Daxy indicates that he was the holder of a 50% stake in the company BT MG, which is engaged in commercial mediation. One of his associates there – Ivan Kolev, was among leaders of the emblematic once Privatization Fund Multigroupelit together with Nicolay Vulkanov and the late Ilia Pavlov. Jacquelin Joseph Cohen is listed among the management of the now defunct Privatization Fund Nicotiana – BT with current procurator Bulgartabac – Holding Ivan Bilarev. In the past, this complete stranger in the energy sector supervised MFI-Tours. The owner of the company in question was Valentin Mollov, dubbed the capitalist number 1 in the wake of the transition period. Mr. Cohen has performed also as a manager of Trizet which was a shareholder in Elkabel of businessman Fuat Guven.
Recognizing Bojinov’s experience as a parliamentarian and Cohen’s skills in the corporate world there is no dispute that they are not into energy, much less into nuclear energy. Which leads to the eternal question – if the boards are places for checked and faithful to the party people?
The situation is similar in Mines Maritsa East. On the board of the mining company in late November 2013 was appointed Vasil Samarski. He is an economist by education, has a master’s degree in Economics and Industrial Management of the University of national and World Economy. The progress in his career was probably helped by the fact that
Samarski is chairman of socialists in Stara Zagora
and the chair of the municipal council in Kazanlak. According to the Daxy, the party functionary is one of the two owners of the general partnership Vis Vitalis – Samarski and Co that stays behind Kazanlak’s TV channel Press TV „.
Interesting are the other two new members to the board of the state mines. On 23 January as chairman was appointed Georgi Zlatev, previously deputy CEO and member of the board of directors of Brickell. The briquette factory is owned by the registered in the Seychelles Moller Corp. and is allegedly being controlled by businessman Hristo Kovachky.
Samara and Zlatev will be helped by 35 -year-old financier Ivan Todorov Yonchev, who is also Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH). He is also part of in the board of directors of the South Stream Bulgaria and ICBG – the company that is building the gas system link with Greece.
The chief of BEH definitely has something to boast with
before entering with a bang in the big energy at the end of 2013. A check in Daxy shows that in 2008-2009 he was on the Board of Directors of Investment Properties REIT (formerly known as Kolos- 1). The company is a major player in several questionable land swaps in Sofia in the period 2007-2008 , which were carried out under the signature of the former governor of the region, again from the socialists, Todor Modev. But the key figure in the Investment Properties is Mityo Videlov. Videlov was Deputy Minister of Regional Development in the government of Jean Videnov and Stefan Sofianski and Chief Architect of Sofia from 1986 to 1991. During the time of the tripartite coalition he was an adviser on construction matters to Minister Asen Gagauzov and the Chairman of the National Expert Council to the Ministry. Videlov was also a member of the jury for the selection of an architectural plan for the construction of a government complex at Tsarigradsko Shosse Road , which involves also Sergey Stanishev’s brother – Georgi.
Today, former colleague of Mityo Videlov, Ivan Jonchev, is already one of the most influential figures in the Bulgarian energy sector regardless of experience he has.
For Assen Gagauzov socialists also found a sweet position
– it is in ICBG, and now, together with Jonchev, he will need to speed up the construction of the gas interconnector with Greece. In fact the former construction minister, during whose period in office a scandal with EU funds exploded, was a major driving force in the plans for the construction of the Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline, but the project was abandoned as unprofitable during the reign of GERB.
