In the next part of our series, we present another chapter of the suspicious property scandal involving the finance minister.

As we reported in the first part of our series, threads in he scandal involving leading politicians including the current finance minister from Bulgaria’s ruling We Continue the Change party (PP) run deep. BIRD local investigative portal has uncovered the strange real estate deal involving Daniel Lorer, a PP MP and former innovation minister, and STV Consulting, a company linked to PP Finance Minister Asen Vasilev.

The interesting thing is that STV Consulting and Daniel Lorer were the owners of a building consisting of several separate units at 3 Chatalja Street in Sofia, which according to some press sources was also used as a party headquarters. Daniel Lorer’s wife happens to also be Vasilev’s chief of staff.

Lorer had purchased his properties from STV at well below market price per square metre, and later Lorer and SVT sold their properties on the same day, with Lorer selling for five times the price he had acquired them for.

Interestingly, the sale took place just before STV Consulting filed for insolvency and its accounts were frozen at the request of a US citizen, Sebastian Bretschneider. Bretschneider has taken his claim to court for more than 5 million Bulgarian leva (around €2,500) – but we’ll have more on this in the next part of our series.

Another point of note is that both Lorer’s and STV Consulting’s units were bought by the same buyer (and one of her companies), none other than Stanislava Arnaudova, referred to in the press as ‘Queen of Tolls’, who paid even more to Lorer for his few units than she paid for the rest of the building.

So, why would the ‘Toll Queen’ pay Lorer and STV Consulting such a large sum at a critical moment for the company? After all, STV, which is linked to the finance minister, had just got rid of the property for millions of levas before its assets were seized. In addition, a large part of the money disappeared from the company’s account before it was frozen per Bretschneider’s claim.

Who is Stanislava Arnaudova, ‘Queen of Tolls’?

Stanislava Arnaudova, the buyer of the building used as PP party headquarters, is the owner of Intelligent Traffic Systems AD, one of three intermediaries for collecting state highway toll fees. The company receives a commission of 7 per cent for this service.

Between 2019 and 2022, this company received more than 88.9 million levas (more than 4.5 million euros) of the more than 110 million levas received by the toll system’s intermediaries, under a contract with the state road infrastructure agency (RIA).

The information concerning the revenue was disclosed by Bozhidar Bozhanov, MP of Democratic Bulgaria (DB), in January last year in response to a parliamentary question. The politician and his party submitted a proposal to reduce commissions to 3 per cent and allow the involvement of other companies in the deal, which was restricted to two companies under the GERB government. The proposal, however, was voted down by the GERB (former ruling party, under which the contracts were signed) and the We Continue the Change (PP) party (the current governing party Finance Minister Asen Vasilev comes from) in the national assembly.

And the Toll Queen’s company can continue to rake in millions.

However, the story does not end here. Last summer, Intelligent Traffic Systems contacted the finance ministry, headed by Asen Vasilev, requesting exemption for electronic toll service providers from public procurement rules.

Providers of electronic toll services are selected by the board of the RIA, the state road infrastructure agency mentioned above, and are not involved in public procurement procedures. The RIA’s board of directors decides whether they meet certain criteria and signs contracts with the selected companies. This was also the procedure adopted by the GERB government.

Last summer, the finance ministry published for public consultation a draft law amending the public procurement act to align it with European directives. The draft law covers many areas from hospitals to the financing of medicines, and also includes public road tolls. Under this bill, the Toll Queen’s company would not be handpicked by the RIA for the job, but would be required to put in a bid for tender.

Consequently, last summer, Stanislava Arnaudova sent a letter to the finance minister, headed by Asen Vasilev, in an effort to oppose this change and ensure that contracts between the RIA and providers of electronic toll collection services do not fall under the public procurement law.

Eventually, the part criticised by the ‘Toll Queen’ was omitted from the submitted bill, and the old situation remained: e-toll service providers are not required to take part in public procurement procedures, they will be selected by the RIA board in the future too and will continue to receive 7 per cent commission on revenues.