We managed to save only 4 million leva from the 150 million leva loan granted by Stoyan Mavrodiev. This was said in the program “120 minutes“ by the Executive Director of the Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB), Tsanko Arabadzhiev.
Back in 2021, in “120 minutes“ it became publicly known that BDB - the state bank, whose main task is to support small and medium-sized businesses with loans, under the leadership of Mavrodiev had granted loans in huge amounts to certain companies. A few days ago, he was detained in Belgrade.
“Currently, Stoyan Mavrodiev is a problem for the Bulgarian justice system. From the bank's point of view, his era is over long ago and "Mavrodievism" has been finally and absolutely eradicated, explained Arabadzhiev.
He said that since he took over the bank in 2021, many positive things have happened and today the institution is radically different from what it was before.
“The huge problem is the loan for 150 million leva. This led to the development of the situation we have at the moment. From the bank's point of view, it became clear even then that this was very dubious and very poorly executed,“ he commented.
According to Arabadzhiev, a lot of money was given to a company that should not have received it, against collateral that is not worth a tenth of the funds. “This is not a deal, but fraud“.
“From the bank's point of view, the matter is closed. We took action immediately, but the procedure for satisfying creditors in Bulgaria itself takes time. In 2024, we finally closed this topic when we sold everything that could be realized in relation to this transaction“, he emphasized.
According to him, only 4 million leva out of these 150 million were returned. “That was the only thing that was possible“.
“When we took the company under our control, precisely with the aim of understanding what was in it, and when we collected the necessary information, we put the entire company, which was the subject of the collateral, up for public auction“, Arabadzhiev shared.
He explained that 4-5 auctions were held. “We started with 9-10 million leva. No one showed up and it was not until the fourth or fifth auction that a potential buyer appeared. The deal was completed for 3.5 million“.
The company had some equipment and concessions on certain road construction quarries in Kardzhali.
„As important as it is to return to these topics, we must be aware that today the situation is fundamentally different and the bank is in a completely different position than then. Every time we go back, we more or less suffer certain damages“, believes Arabadzhiev.
According to him, his role was to heal the institution and turn it into what it is today. „And today it is one of the key partners of the European Commission in Bulgaria“.
„After a difficult two-year audit by the European Commission, it found that the measures in the BDB and the internal mechanisms regarding of control, accountability and transparency are at the highest level“, he emphasized.
“BDB is the only financial institution in Bulgaria that has the right to manage European funds from the European Union budget. This is happening only 2 years after these events, which we are talking about in 2021“, commented Arabadzhiev.
According to him, this is what helped in the summer of 2025, after difficult negotiations with the European Commission, to save 250 million euros of resources under the Recovery and Resilience Plan. “This is a resource that the state would have lost, since it failed to organize itself in time“.
“BDB managed to save these 250 million. With them, the renovation of residential buildings will now be carried out – over 500 blocks and thousands of households will feel the effect of this measure“, commented he.
According to Arabadzhiev, everything with Mavrodiev is in the past. “It is more important to talk about what the bank's place is in the current economic situation in the country, because the debate is very distorted“.