The Anti-Corruption Fund (ACF) has published the third part of its series on Hristo Kovachki’s hidden network in the Bulgarian energy sector, entitled „Uncle Trevichko’s Holding 3: Deeds and Documents“.
This episode focuses on the analysis of 29 key internal documents leaked from the archives of the companies of “Holding Orion” to the ACF. All documents are published on the ACF website.
Veselin Todorov, who told his personal story in the holding company in the second episode, commented on the content of the documents to Nikolay Staykov and Andrey Yankulov from the ACF team. Between April 2019 and December 2023, Veselin Todorov managed gas trading at Hristo Kovachki’s Orion Holding. During this period, Todorov was the manager of Bulgarian Gas Company, one of the key companies trading in natural gas within Kovachki’s structure. Prior to that, Todorov was a natural gas expert at the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission.
In three of the published documents, Hristo Kovachki is addressed as the actual owner and manager of the companies in Holding Orion. The first document is a report from the Head of the Security Department at TPP Bobov Dol EAD Petar Nikolov and contains both the salutation “Dear Mr. Kovachki” and the sentence “Due to the fact that your property – TPP Bobov Dol EAD is of strategic importance to the national security of the country…”
“The document leaves no doubt that Mr. Kovachki is the real owner of TPP Bobov Dol and that this fact is known to his employees. This clearly contradicts Mr. Kovachki’s public statements that he is a ‘consultant’ who has no ownership interest in the companies of Holding Orion”, commented Lora Georgieva, senior legal advisor to the Anti-Corruption Fund.
Another document analyzed in the episode is Annex No. 42 to the Framework Agreement for the Issuance of Bank Guarantees, which shows that 16 formally unrelated companies (all part of Holding Orion, including the Bobov Dol Thermal Power Plant, Atomenergoremont, and TBL) enter into an agreement with Investbank AD, according to which the previously agreed total limit for issuing bank guarantees is increased. The companies jointly and severally undertake to provide bank guarantees securing the proper performance of the contracts concluded by some of them with the Electricity System Operator EAD and Bulgartransgaz EAD.
“In practice, this means that all 16 companies are liable for the obligations of each of them, and some guarantee performance with a mortgage on their property. There is no logical explanation as to why economic entities that are independent of each other on paper have jointly committed themselves to a bank in order for a bank guarantee to be granted to another economic entity. The only explanation is that the companies in question are acting as a real holding company with centralized management”, commented Lora Georgieva.
“This is also evident from the agreed total authorized limit of bank guarantees amounting to over BGN 22 million.”
Among the documents is Order No. 76/27.05.2021 Regarding: negotiation of prices for the regulatory period 01.07.2021 – 30.06.2022. The order is addressed to “all TPPs, Mines, TBL, TBD – Freight Transport, Analytical and Modelling Department.” The subject of the order is “the introduction of a market relations scheme” between the companies and marks the start of negotiations between the mines and TPP ‘Brikel’ “as a producer on the one hand” and the coal-fired thermal power plants “as a consumer on the other hand.”
“The order is evidence of the cartel agreements that exist between the seemingly unrelated companies of Holding Orion. Through them, they only imitate market relations, but in fact manipulate prices to hide millions of levs in profits, which ultimately harms end consumers of electricity and heating in Bulgaria by maintaining artificially inflated prices”, commented Lora Georgieva.
Another document reveals details of financial irregularities used to conceal millions in liabilities owed by Holding Orion to the national budget. The document is a request for confirmation of the receivables/liabilities of TIBIEL EOOD to the management of Bulgarian Gas Company EOOD. According to Veselin Todorov, who has been the manager of Bulgarian Gas Company EOOD for three years, this is a “bogus invoice”.
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