Oligarch Ivo Prokopiev drains VAT

A company of oligarch Ivo Prokopiev has drained VAT via connected firms, Emil Georgiev, Chairman of Political Club Ecoglasnost, told at a news conference.

In January 2009, the company Industrial Zone Varna West, controlled by Ivo Prokopiev’s Alfa Finance Holding, signed a ficticious contract with the company Systemconsult for services at inflated prices, using improperly a tax credit that has to be returned. The consulting contract, worth BGN 600,000, is for studying the opportunities for investment in renewable energy sources near Devnya.

At the same time, before receiving the consultancy report, a contract was signed on September 1, 2009 for designing and building a photovoltaic power plant with another company, also involved in the scheme. This is Solarpro JSC, also owned by Alpha Finance. The company was registered as a subsidiary of Ivo Prokopiev’s Kaolin JSC. While the contract for building the photovoltaic park was in force, the company was owned by an enterprise controlled by Ivo Prokopiev’s brother. After that, the company was officially transferred to Solarpro Holding, with Alfa Finance Holding as the main shareholder.

Industrial Zone Varna West began working on the project, accounting the controversial BGN 600,000 contract as costs for its activities, which according to the expert assessment of the National Revenue Agency (NRA) the contract is not worth more than BGN 100,000. A contract was signed with E.ON for the purchase of green energy from the photovoltaic park near Devnya, which is still in force.

The company controlled by Ivo Prokopiev filed a VAT refund claim for BGN 120,000.

However, the fraud became evident after a leak. NRA - Varna began an inspection. In the middle of 2010, a statement was issued to Industrial Park Varna West and it was ordered to reimburse to the budget the BGN 120,000 VAT, received on the BGN 600,000 credit. Immediately after the statement was issued, the company was transferred to an offshore company in Cyprus. The act was litigated at the Varna Court and revoked.

On July 31, 2012, the Supreme Administrative Court rescinded the decision of the Varna Court. The company has to refund the VAT to the budget.

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