The network of murdered Martin Bozhanov: How was pressure exerted on certain people?
Threats for violence towards whole families if they did not pay - these were the methods used by Martin Bozhanov's men. This is what Joaquim Kalamaris, who is among the Greek businessmen harassed by the circle around “The Notary”, told BNT programme "The Day Begins" on February 15. According to him, after refusing to pay, checks by institutions and lawsuits followed.
You run a profitable business and you want to invest more. At some point, your pitch turns out to be appetizing to other people who want to put their hand on the business. Threats and extortion follow. That's how The Notary's scheme worked, according to those in the know.
"There were threats to us, to our families, that if we didn't give in, they should fix us. This is blackmail. They come to the table and say ‘Give this amount, we can fix you, you are in a very bad state, you might get even worse’. These people are very powerful," said Joaquim Kalamaris, a businessman.
When businessmen don't break and refuse to pay, then The Notary’s group switched to Plan B. It involves officials from institutions, entrepreneurs say.
Greek businessman Joaquim Kalamaris on the extortion by Notary's men: There were threats to us and our families
"We had a call from people who pretended to be SANS officials, we had a hell of a lot of pressure and checks from the NRA, from the anti-corruption commision, but I say again we were not worried because we were clean," said Joakim Kalamaris, a businessman.
More than 10 lawsuits followed, including for fraud. The businessmen say they have alerted a number of institutions about pressure on them and so far to no avail. Following their revelations and tales of a relationship between The Notary's lawyer Velimir Atanasov and the administrative head of the Sofia District Prosecutor's Office, Nevena Zartova, she resigned. She then said that she and the lawyer maintained friendly relations but never commented on pre-trial proceedings.
Sofia's district prosecutor Nevena Zartova has resigned
"We can see that there is a desire to ‘clean the house’ and that Mr Sarafov (acting Prosecutor General) will have a lot of work to do in this regard if these details made public in recent days and hours are true. This is an ugly and quite dangerous phenomenon if we are really talking about such a synchronicity between Martin Bozhanov – The Notary and the people gravitating around him. If this group actually had similar contacts within the judiciary, this is very serious," Nikolay Kokinov, a former Sofia city prosecutor, told BNT.
Exactly what is the scale of the scheme and who was on top – The Notary or a still well-covered person - the answer is expected by everyone.
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Martin Bozhanov was shot dead in a gated complex in Sofia’s suburb of Gorna Banya on the evening of January 31. According to media reports, he was involved in fixing people's problems with the judiciary. Five days after the murder of Martin Bozhanov - The Notary, new revelations emerged about the methods of influence in the judiciary. According to the Minister of Interior, Bozhanov actually acted as a mediator and solved and created problems for citizens with the judiciary.
The data gathered so far outlines the murdered Martin Bozhanov-as an influential figure - he acted as an intermediary.
"It was very easy for him to solve, but it was also very easy for him to create problems for various citizens with the judiciary", stressed Kalin Stoyanov - Minister of Interior.
Nikolay Staykov, who is an investigative journalist and co-founder of the non-governmental Anti-Corruption Fund, said that Bozhanov was known in recent years as owner of a private club "SS" for magistrates in the capital's Geo Milev residential district, located near the now-closed Specialised Court. In an investigation, the Anti-Corruption Fund shows recordings of a series of conversations that reveal who the "enablers" are with influence in the judiciary.
According to the investigative journalist, the club was managed by the late Bozhanov and was used for informal relations with mid- and high-level magistrates. The access to the club was by only by card. For the moment, it remains a mystery which persons with influence in the judiciary have visited the club.
The Prosecutor’s Office on February 7 entered the private club "SS" associated with Bozhanov. Various media and computers were seized during the searches. The Prosecutor’s office is checking whether magistrates were members of the club, whether and why they went there. Currently, there are pre-trial proceedings for an organized criminal group, of which Bozhanov was part, established for the purpose of exerting pressure on magistrates, for property fraud and money laundering. It has also become known that Bozhanov had changed the digits of his single uniform civil number (a unique 10-digit number that serves as national identification number), as well as his surname, and the police are checking the reasons and the way this happened.
