The dark times left Bulgaria with over 150 contract killings by 2014, and the oligarchic ones added new significant shootings. But in both models, the perpetrators remain undetected.
"The"umbrella" when acquiring property is transformed into protection for its preservation and multiplication - through public procurement, concessions, administrative decisions and electoral justice. The connections between power, business and crime, which hides behind the scenes, have not disappeared. To this day, political patronage helps a business grow, and prosecutorial patronage helps it be taken over without consequences.
Black lottery - a motive for murder?
After the murder with a bullet between the eyes of 53-year-old Iliyan Filipov, known for his large-scale business in automobile and railway transport, as well as his construction companies, the prosecutor's office raised the version of black lottery - that is, match-fixing and related unpaid debts from bets. And 51-year-old S.M., whose criminal record includes convictions for murder and robbery, is accused of premeditated murder. Rumors also entangled a version of a love triangle - a woman between the two.
Filipov was the owner of the football club "Botev"-Plovdiv, whose stadium was built by a consortium of companies, in which his PIMK was the leading partner. In the period 2020-2024, the state allocated over 92 million leva (47 million euros) for the construction of the stadium, and in addition to taxpayers' money, over 10 million leva (5.11 million euros) came from the Plovdiv municipality and the club.
The suspicions of black toto have a history. In October 2025, the president of "Slavia" Ventseslav Stefanov accused people close to Filipov of trying to bribe football players for a simulated game against "Botev".
Filipov denied it and announced that he would sue him for defamation, and subsequently the two exchanged accusations and invitations to take a polygraph. But in June this year The prosecutor's office refuses to initiate pre-trial proceedings on the match report due to insufficient evidence of a crime.
After the murder of the entrepreneur, the prosecutor's office will have to return to these charges, and most likely to a missing drug shipment.
In March 2025, an investigation into international drug trafficking, two missing men and 160 kilograms of missing cocaine leads the SDVR to the offices of PIMK and "Next Logistics". The police are investigating transport transactions and specific requests. Filipov denies his companies' involvement in the crime and explains that one of the detainees is their former driver. What the investigation found about these transactions remains without a public answer.
Business in progress under all governments
For almost a quarter of a century, the business progress of Filipov's group has not stopped under any government. PIMK established itself in international road transport even before the GERB government and in 2008-2009 it already owned 180 trucks. But under the GERB and Boyko Borisov government it was particularly profitable. In 2015 it entered the freight railway transport, and in 2017 it received a 27-year concession for the intermodal terminal near Plovdiv, through which goods are transported to and from Turkey - it was the only candidate. The obligations are to pay a fixed fee of 60,000 leva per year (30.7 thousand euros) plus 10% of net revenues and a commitment to investments of 15.1 million leva (7.72 million euros).
The contract for the completion of the "Hristo Botev" stadium was taken in 2020. Under the "Denkov" cabinet in 2023 "PIMK Rail Express" became the first private company with a license for passenger rail transportation.
The version of illegal bets raises the question of whether there was another person behind the public business - and what the institutions knew about it.
In addition, Iliyan Filipov was in a 50:50 partnership with accusations of his physical killer in a company that was building a residential complex in the capital's Dragalevtsi district. But S.M. left the company and his share passed into the hands of another shareholder.
The Plovdiv circle
The political center of the new government comes from Plovdiv. Prime Minister Rumen Radev has been connected to the Plovdiv region since his military career. In the period 1999-2009 he served at the "Graf Ignatievo" airbase - as deputy commander, chief of staff and commander, with a break for training in the USA.
A circle of key figures from the region formed around Radev during his presidency - Plamen Uzunov, Nikolay Koprinkov, Ivan Demerdzhiev, who was Minister of Internal Affairs in the official cabinet. Today, Koprinkov is the head of the Prime Minister's Cabinet and in the Executive Council of "Progressive Bulgaria", while Demerdzhiev combines the post of Minister of Internal Affairs with the chairmanship of the party's Control Council.
The Minister of the Interior admitted that he knew Filipov, but denied having legally represented him or the PIMK. Although he may have given him legal advice without Filipov having signed a power of attorney for procedural representation. Deputy Prime Minister Galab Donev stated that Filipov was not among the donors to "Progressive Bulgaria". But no one expects the names of big businessmen to appear on the list presented to the Court of Auditors.
Both the closeness and the enmity in the Plovdiv business are publicly known. In the spring of 2025, Filipov publicly accused his former partner Ivan Petleshkov of putting pressure on his business and influencing the local police and the municipality, and Petleshkov denied the accusations.
Meanwhile, on October 4, Julian Yankov-Kartofa suddenly surrendered to the Greek authorities and, through his lawyer, repeated the accusation that the vice-presidential candidate and former Secretary General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Georgi Kandev had asked him for half of his business. Kandev rejected the allegations as fabricated. And the Ministry of Internal Affairs itself announced that Kartofa was detained after a signal to the Greek authorities. Yankov is being brought in as a defendant for misappropriation of vehicles and illegal schemes with roadside assistance funds. The new scandal may silence the questions after Filipov's shooting, without answering any of them.