You own a property and pay the taxes on it. One morning you discover that the property is no longer yours. Someone took it. To get it back, you have to file a lawsuit. However, against you stand famous names with political connections.
One day you receive a letter that your land is no longer yours. At the same time, this is happening to your neighbor. And with his neighbor. And with his…, an investigation by “Free Europe” begins about how a company of the former candidate-buyer of the largest electricity distribution company in our country – CEZ, and owner of solar parks Ginka Varbakova “acquired” properties of people from two Pazardzhik villages for his project there without their knowledge.
The day is at the beginning of January 2024.
“I received a notification at my address from the head of the Cadastre Agency – Pazardzhik, who informed me that a property (number) was already registered with “Rial States” and therefore my father’s property was deleted.”
This is what a man who lives in Sofia, but has properties near Pazardzhik, wrote in a report to the prosecutor’s office. He’s about to find out that this isn’t just happening to him.
The scheme is the same
“I sought assistance from our relatives and our acquaintances from the villages of Apriltsi and Sbor, who informed me that the company “Rial States” EOOD has taken over many properties with confirmatory notarial acts,” wrote the man, who remains anonymous.
In the same scheme, many people have lost their land. We are talking about ascertainment acts – i.e. witnesses go to a notary, say that property X has been used by person Y for a long time, and the notary issues a title document. The law allows such a procedure. In this case, what is doubtful is that it is about the same witnesses who go to the same notary. Only the seized properties belong to different people.
“It is incomprehensible to me how in the 21st century someone can afford to take away our property in this way,” writes the victim.
This man’s story is not an isolated case, and his property is among hundreds of others that have become part of a solar farm project.
We are talking about hundreds of acres covered with photovoltaic panels. Court decisions, however, show that dozens of properties were illegally appropriated by the investor company.
“Organized criminal group”
From a reference in the Property Register, it can be seen that hundreds of acres were acquired within a day with a single deed. A closer look shows that this happened with one notary, with the same testimony.
The company that owns the photovoltaic park is “Real States”. She says that everything is legal, and the notary – that he followed the law.
Work on the project begins with the mayor of Pazardzhik Todor Popov (supported by GERB). He ruled the city for 16 years and demonstrated closeness to both the former prime minister and GERB leader Boyko Borisov, and Delyan Peevski, the leader of the DPS, sanctioned by the US for corruption.
The new mayor of Pazardjik Petar Kulenski (PP-DB) said that “an organized criminal group is operating” on the territory of the municipality, which has appropriated “thousands of acres of agricultural land” in the lands of the villages of Sbor and Apriltsi for the construction of photovoltaic plants.
The owner of the investor company “Real States” is Ginka Varbakova, who in 2018 wanted to buy the Bulgarian assets of CEZ in our country. At the time, Varbakova denied having a political background, but she was friends with the then Minister of Energy, Temenuzka Petkova, who is now an MP from GERB.
The promises of Varbakova’s company
The construction of the photovoltaic park near the villages of Sbor and Apriltsi in the municipality of Pazardzhik began more than 15 years ago.
In 2008, the Municipality of Pazardzhik concluded a contract with “Real States” for the sale of 2 thousand decares of municipal land for BGN 500 thousand. The promise is to invest BGN 400 million in a solar park that will be ready in 32 months.
The investor undertakes to build a solar photovoltaic park for 32 months. The penalty for non-implementation of the project is EUR 1 million. In 2018, the Anti-Corruption Fund revealed that the promise was not kept, but the local government did not seek the penalty. According to the investigation, about 5 thousand oak and beech trees were cut down from the municipal lands. The wood from them is valued at the amount according to the deal of the town hall with Varbakova.
“Deals” of any kind
A reference by “Free Europe” in the Property Register shows that in 2022-2023, the business lady’s company will suddenly start acquiring land near the villages of Apriltsi and Sbor. This happened both with regular transactions with people who agreed to sell, but also through notarial notarial acts entered on the same day, at the same notary with the same witnesses.
In 2022, people in the area begin to understand in different ways that their lands already belong to Varbakova’s company, and start lawsuits against her.
Lawyer Valery Peychev, who works on some of the cases, explains that people understand the news that they are not owners when they go to sign their lease contracts or when they decide to sell their fields.
“Real States” stated to the publication that all properties were acquired legally and of all their approximately 8,500 decares in the area, there are legal claims for about 50 decares.
The new mayor of Pazarzhik, Petar Kulenski, said at the end of 2023 that he had referred the case to the prosecutor’s office.
How does the “acquisition” take place?
D.D. and I.D. are the owners of several properties in the land of the village of Sbor. A total of over 32 decares – orchard and fields. The fields are leased and the information about this is public, they harvest the orchard themselves.
In 2022, without their knowledge and permission, solar panels were installed on their property and trees were uprooted. When checking the register, the two found that the Real States company’s ownership certificates were issued for their properties. This happened at notary Milena Minkova. People file lawsuits, submit their title deeds and leases. The court recognizes their right to property and revokes the issued notarial deed of ascertainment.
The court returns levels, the company does not appeal
Similar is the case of heirs at levels of 2 decares. Their property was leased to a registered farmer and was reported to the State Agriculture Fund as being under cultivation. I.e. the owners are discoverable and the property is known to be under development. Quite by chance, one of the co-owners of the property discovered that the land had a new owner.
This happened at the same notary. In this case, Varbakova’s company did not even dispute the people’s claims, and the court returned the property to them.
“The problem is that 90% of the land owners do not know that their land has been ‘acquired’ by Real State,” lawyer Borislav Naydenov, who leads the cases of land owners against the company, told Free Europe. act, “a total of over 1,400 agricultural properties were acquired since the start of the fraud in 2020, with a total area of over 8,000 decares, which at market prices are over BGN 10 million”.
Real States denies the allegations and says all the land was acquired legally.
The coincidences
A review of the affidavits for the recognition of the Real States properties shows that they belong to three employees of the company.
Their explanations begin in the same way: “I know the land of Apriltsi village and Sbor village very well. The company owns more than 5,000 decares in the village of Apriltsi and in the village of Sbor. In the middle of the text it says that “at all times only Real States owns and owns the properties” and ends with “these properties belong to the petitioner” (“Real States”).
Identical readings, even with the punctuation
Based on these certificates, notary Milena Minkova issues a notarial deed for 51 properties with an area of nearly 200 decares. More properties were acquired with similar notarial acts issued by the same notary.
In response to Free Europe’s questions, notary Milena Minkova wrote that the witnesses were asked the same questions.
“With the same questions and the same factual composition, the testimony of the witnesses is the same. When writing the protocol and the notaries, we already use computers and the “copy” and “paste” functions. Therefore, the testimony of the witnesses is identical in terms of words and punctuation marks”, explains Minkova.
“Free Europe” is reviewing 6 notarial acts issued by Minkova in 2022, with which she certified the ownership right of “Rial States” on nearly 200 properties of hundreds of acres based on witness statements alone.
The coincidences among the witnesses make an impression on the mayor of Pazardzhik, Petar Kulenski.
“It struck me that the person who requested this procedure (for the issuance of a finding document – note the order) and the person who expressed this desire also appear in other files,” said Kulenski for Free Europe. The reason he is reviewing these files is that by law, before issuing a finding, the relevant notary is obliged to ask the municipality if this land is not municipal.
Municipal roads for solar panels
“Real States” does not only acquire fields and gardens. It also becomes the owner of the municipal roads next to them.
“We checked the cadastre and found that a large part of the Polish roads in the area were deactivated by the municipality as public municipal property, were registered as private municipal property, were put up for auction and sold to the same company. As a result of this act, our properties lose access to public municipal roads and are completely surrounded by Ginka Varbakova’s private property,” says a villager.
The decision to sell the municipal roads was made at the end of 2022 at the proposal of the then mayor Todor Popov and approved by the Municipal Council. Popov could not be reached for comment.
Seven out of a total of 41 municipal councilors were against. One of those who voted against was Chavdar Chavdarov, a representative of the Local Coalition “Agricultural People’s Union”.
“The reason I voted against is that when the purpose of such roads is changed, it should only be for agricultural needs, and their argument was that they would sell them for photovoltaics,” Chavdarov told Svobodna Europa. According to him, in the general array of properties bought by “Real States”, there are also those that belong to individual citizens, but remained without access.
At the end of January, the prosecutor’s office said that the District Prosecutor’s Office in Pazardzhik is monitoring two pre-trial proceedings related to agricultural lands in Sbor and Apriltsi.
According to “Free Europe”, the prosecutor’s office in Pazardzhik has been investigating the case for more than two years, but there is no information about any actions taken. The District Prosecutor’s Office – Pazardzhik did not respond to the publication’s questions. Only after the publication did they inform that they were monitoring one pre-trial proceeding and three files on the case.
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