Financial Transactions Shed New Light on State-Sponsored Road Assistance Scheme

The first part of ACF’s investigation into illegal subcontracting of road maintenance activities showed how millions of euros have been channelled to a network of companies offering roadside assistance. Now, financial transaction documents show the flow of large sums of money from the Road Infrastructure Agency to several layers of subcontractors, including the private company Unit Assist LTD.

The Anti-Corruption Fund Foundation (ACF) has access to a list of nearly 200 financial transactions to and from the account of Unit Assist LTD for the period from December 2025 to March 2026.

The list includes 21 payments made to Unit Assist by companies contracted by the Road Infrastructure Agency to provide road maintenance services free of charge under certain conditions. These companies include Avtomagistrali SMC, Nivel Stroy SMLLC, Glavbolgarstoy JSC, Viastroy AD, Groma Hold SMLLC and others.

Only the state-owned Avtomagistrali paid Unit Assist more than EUR 1.34 million over four months, while the total sum transferred to the private company was over EUR 2.57 million.

In response to questions by the ACF, Avtomagistrali de facto confirmed the existence of payments to Unit Assist.

“Such transactions once again confirm the fact that the provision of road assistance services has been subcontracted in violation of the Public Procurement Act. Avtomagistrali is a signatory to road maintenance contracts, which also oblige it to provide roadside assistance. The company has declared to the Road Infrastructure Agency that it has the capacity to provide such services; however, this does not appear to be the case,” said Sofia Zheleva, a legal expert with the ACF.

The payments by all companies contracted to carry out road maintenance and roadside assistance accrue in the company account of Unit Assist. The funds then flow in two directions: to the network of roadside assistance companies subcontracted by Unit Assist and to the personal account of the mother of Unit Assist’s owner, Yulian Yankov, in a possible bid to hide large salaries and bonuses received by him.

Payments to Unit Assist’s subcontractors

ACF identified 115 outgoing transactions, each worth BGN 24,000 (EUR 12,000) from Unit Assist’s account. The payments, worth a total of BGN 2.76 million (EUR 1.41 million), were made to 17 road assistance companies from December 2025 to March 2026.

The largest recipients were Omerta Group (EUR 383,000) and Bozav SMLLC (EUR 184,000), belonging to Gospodin Valev, also known as Dinko from Yambol.

In addition to these payments, Unit Assist also made others, worth tens of thousands, to Yankov’s mother, Tzvetanka Yankova.

On 29 December 2025, Unit Assist received two payments, worth EUR 49,595, from Nivel Stroy and another one, worth EUR 184,576, from Groma Hold. The same day, there was an outgoing transaction, worth EUR 56,242, from Unit Assist’s account to Yankova’s account. The reference field for the transaction states ‘Salary Month 11,2025 Yulian Luyben’. A day later, Unit Assist made another payment of EUR 5,113 to Tzvetanka Yankova with the same reference field.

Similarly, from December 2025 to March 2026, Yulian Yankov’s mother received payments, worth a total of EUR 598,000, from the account of her son’s company with various reference fields: ‘salary for Yulian’, ‘monthly bonus’, ‘partial payment of Yulian’s salary’ and so on.

“The payments made to Yankov’s mother show that public funds allocated for the provision of free roadside assistance are being channelled to relatives of Unit Assist’s owner as a way of paying salaries and bonuses to Yulian Yankov himself. This raises the question of why Yankov has to resort to such measures in securing payments for himself, and whether the reason for these transactions has to do with hiding his sources of income,” said Zheleva.

A belated comment from Eng. Yordan Valchev

During the several months it took to conduct ACF’s investigation, the organisation repeatedly approached the Road Infrastructure Agency, asking for an interview with the agency’s then director, Yordan Valchev. These attempts were, however, unsuccessful.

Soon after assuming office, the caretaker government of Prime Minister Andrey Guyrov removed Valchev from office. This happened on the day that ACF’s investigation was published, and following reports by the media outlets Sega and Mediapool, stating that the Road Infrastructure Agency had increased the value of road maintenance contracts by as much as 50 per cent.

In a telephone conversation before his removal from office, Eng. Yordan Valchev said that the agency had launched the free roadside assistance service in the summer of 2025. He denied that any violations had taken place, saying that the information presented in the first part of ACF’s investigation was ‘manipulative’.

Eng. Valchev further stated that the agency’s only mistake was failing to communicate to drivers the fact that the new public service had been made available.

“Our institutions owe citizens an answer to the question of why, for eight months already, they have been paying millions for a public service provided through layers of subcontractors at a significantly inflated cost. Another pressing question is why there are still no signs advertising the new service anywhere along the road network,” said Boyko Stankushev, director of the ACF.

ACF approached the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works and the Road Infrastructure Agency for comments, but was unable to obtain them. None of the agency’s subcontractors answered our questions.

Only one of the companies acting as subcontractors for Unit Assist provided an answer. In a written comment, the company SKIK Trans denied ever having received payments from Unit Assist in exchange for providing roadside assistance services.

On Wednesday, the minister of regional development, Nikolay Naydenov, announced that he was initiating inspections within the Road Infrastructure Agency. According to Naydenov, there were grounds to assume that wrongdoing had occurred, and a monopoly established by a single company.

The minister promised to provide additional details at a later stage. One of the pending questions is who and why recommended that Unit Assist, a company with only 10 registered roadside assistance vehicles and owned by a person with a criminal past, was assigned the provision of the service funded by the Road Infrastructure Agency.