Rosen Karadimov: The loan of nearly BGN 150 million from BBR to Gaitanski's company is unsecured and uncollectible

The loan of nearly 150 million BGN, given by the Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB) in 2019 to &quot "Rodway Construction" is unsecured and uncollectible, acting Minister of Innovation and Growth Rosen Karadimov told journalists.

In 2019, the Bulgarian Development Bank granted a very large, practically unsecured loan for nearly BGN 150 million to "Rodway Construction". When the new Supervisory Board of the Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB) started work in 2022, the first thing we did was to request full information about this loan and to analyze the actions of the bank's previous management, appointed by Kiril Petkov as ex officio Minister of Economy, said Karadimov, who became chairman of the BBR Supervisory Board in November 2022.

I have made it clear several times that no action has been taken on this loan for a year, despite public statements in advance. Therefore, the Supervisory Board requested a detailed report, by days and by hours, of actions on this loan, the minister stressed.

Under this loan, a manager of the company "Rodway Construction" was appointed. We did a recapitulation and it turned out that from an economic point of view, with this form of implementation, BBR does not receive anything, but spends to maintain the company bought with this credit - “Road Engineering“.

Then BBR announced a public auction for the shares of "Road Construction Engineering". The auction runs from the beginning of June with a starting price of BGN 9 million. There were 6 or 7 sessions of this auction and no one showed up. The price fell to BGN 3.5 million when a company appeared that made the deposit and wanted to buy the company, the minister said.

BBR has handed over all information on the credit file to the relevant services, which means that the auction will be suspended. Without the original documents, the shares of the company cannot be transferred, explained the minister.

However, the auction showed that these BGN 150 million are uncollectible and unsecured. The loan was given in 2019, and if it was known then "under the hood" by specialists that the loan is uncollectible, now, after the auction, it has become clear to everyone, said Karadimov.

Earlier today, the prosecutor's office announced that the Anti-Corruption Commission (CPC) and the prosecutor's office are conducting searches in connection with an investigation into a loan granted by the Bulgarian Development Bank in the amount of BGN 148.5 million.

On August 9, the KPK reported that there is a substantiated assumption that violations of the law have been committed in connection with a loan of BGN 148.5 million from the Bulgarian Development Bank, which led to significant damage to the bank, respectively the financial interest of the state. The object of the investigation is data on business failure and embezzlement admitted by BBR officials in connection with the contract concluded on 06.17.2019, with which the bank granted the loan to the company “Rodway Construction”.