Criminal group for real estate title fraud disrupted in Varna

Varna District Court imposed the most severe detention measure "remand in custody" on three men, aged 31, 40 and 49, accused of participating in an organised criminal group established for own benefit.

The pre-trial proceedings according to the description of the directorate for combatting organised crime were initiated in April 2024 by the District Prosecutor's Office - Varna.

The state prosecution has established that the criminal group has been operating from May 2016 to the present moment in the town of Byala Slatina and in Varna. Its activities were related to property fraud committed on the territory of Varna district.

The group found properties whose owners were not interested in them or those of elderly people without heirs. It used false and untrue title deeds stating that various persons from the municipality of Byala Slatina, close to the men in the criminal group, had become the owners of properties in the territory of Varna district.

For this purpose, notary deeds were used which were made to appear to have been issued by one and the same notary in 1944. They were all entered in the same volume at the Varna Registry Agency, which disappeared when it moved to a new address.

The investigation identified numerous false title deeds, with which persons from Byala Slatina municipality legitimised themselves as owners of properties in Ezerovo, Zvezditsa, Varna and other settlements. With the false documents, using proxies, the criminal group got sketches from the Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre Agency and tax assessments, after which the properties were transferred through purchase and sale to various individuals and legal entities.

All three men have clean criminal records.

The Criminal Code provides for a penalty of 5 to 15 years' imprisonment for participation in an organised criminal group established for a self-serving purpose. On the other charge of money laundering, by carrying out transactions with property which they knew to have been acquired through a serious intentional crime, the penalty is 3 to 12 years' imprisonment and a fine of up to BGN 200,000. Drawing up a false official document or altering its contents is punishable by up to 10 years' imprisonment.

Varna District Court considered that sufficient oral, written and material evidence had been gathered from which a reasonable suspicion could be drawn of the involvement of the three men in the crimes for which they had been charged.

In view of the wide range of their activities, and the evidence of pressure exerted on some of the witnesses, the court considers there is a real risk that the men may commit a crime by obstructing the investigation. Separately, these are serious intentional crimes with significant penalties.

Due to the existence of the legal prerequisites, Varna District Court considered that the only appropriate remand measure at the moment for the alleged participants in the criminal group is the most severe one - "detention in custody". The decisions are subject to appeal before the Court of Appeal in Varna.