The court confirmed that the former mayor of Blagoevgrad Atanas Kambitov was in conflict of interest

By final decision of 14 March 2022. The Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) upheld the conflict of interest established by the Commission for Combating Corruption and Confiscation of Illegally Acquired Assets in November 2020 of the former mayor of Blagoevgrad Atanas Kambitov (mayor of PP GERB in the period 2011 – 2019 and subsequently a member of the PP “Republicans for Bulgaria” of Tsvetan Tsvetanov).

It has been established that in his capacity as mayor Kambitov sold a municipal property of 790 sq. m. to his affiliated company Start 2015 EOOD and thereby committed two separate violations of the then current UCCI (amend.) – of Article 8, paragraph 1, item 4- and violation of Article 8, paragraph 2 of the same.

The KPKONPI investigation was initiated on 3.09.2019 following reports to the Prosecutor General that as mayor of Blagoevgrad municipality Kambitov had ordered a secret bidding auction for private municipal property, and the commission appointed by him had ranked the company “Start 2015” EOOD, which is related to him, first, and Kambitov had approved the protocols for the sale. Separately, on 06.02.2017, he signed the contract for the sale of the property.

The company in question was established in 2014, with the sole owner and manager the long-time accountant in other companies of Kambitov – Rumyana Shekerliyska, From the information given in the files, the two, in addition to being in official and very close friendly relations since 2003. This is confirmed by Kambitov himself, but also by his ex-wife, who claims that Shekerliyska was only a front person “for the purpose of laundering Kambitov’s money”, since after becoming a deputy he could not be a manager in his companies.

On 18.09.2017 Shekerliyska sold Start 2015 Ltd. to the incumbent mayor of Blagoevgrad Atanas Kambitov, and on 25.09.2017 he was entered in the Commercial Register as the owner and manager of Start 2015 Ltd.

Just two days later, on 27.09.2017, Kambitov distributed to himself a dividend from the company’s 2015-2016 profits in the amount of 79 800 BGN. The explanation Kambitov and the other witnesses gave to the CPKONPI is that this was done because it was a legal way to receive money and income, because his other accounts were seized by banks.

On the same day – 27.09.2017 – Kambitov decided to sell Start 2015 Ltd. to another close partner and friend of his – Ivaylo Dimitrov Blagov, and on 20.10.2017 R. Shekerliyska.

Thus, in the period from 25 September to 3 October 2017, for 10 days, the Mayor Atanas Kambitov was registered as the sole owner of the capital and manager of Start 2015 Ltd. – in the conditions of incompatibility with the public position of mayor of the municipality of Blagoevgrad.

A few years later, on 17 September 2020, a change of the sole owner of Start 2015 Ltd. was registered in the Commercial Register, the new owner being Start Group 2020 Ltd. (established in March 2020) – owned by Atanas Kambitov and his daughter Elena.

Thus, finally for the established acts presenting a conflict of interest, Kambitov will have to pay two fines of BGN 5,000 each and separately an amount of BGN 86,760 representing the property benefit received and an additional amount of BGN 867.18.

Curiously, the sanctions come only after Kambitov switched from GERB to Tsvetan Tsvetanov’s new formation – Republicans for Bulgaria.

We remind you that back in June 2017, the Anti-Corruption Fund Foundation (ACF) submitted a number of signals because of the discrepancies between Atanas Kambitov’s official income and his lavish lifestyle. The specific occasion was the mayor’s participation in a number of commercial companies, most of which had liens on their accounts, and the glitzy party for Kambitov’s 50th anniversary in a famous capital hotel, which gathered more than 150 guests and many famous music performers. The ACF then found that such an event cost between 20 and 50 thousand BGN, which could hardly be paid with Kambitov’s declared income from salary alone, and this against the background of a number of attachments.

The Commission for the Prevention and Establishment of Conflicts of Interest (KPUKI) terminated the proceedings on our signal on 25.07.2017.

The NRA, in turn, informed us on 1.09.2017 that the results of their verification of Kambitov’s income could only be provided to us with the written consent of the person being audited.

The third institution referred to us, the prosecutor’s office, has remained silent to this day about the fate of our signal and what it revealed.