Great Wall Bulgarian Partner's Son Charged for Role in Crime Gang - Report

Danail Ganchev (L) is pictured here with his father, well-known Bulgarian businessman Grisha Ganchev. File photos

The son of well-known Bulgarian businessman Grisha Ganchev has been charged with involvement in an organized crime group and tax evasion, according to unconfirmed information.

Danail Ganchev is one of the six detained on suspicions of participating in a VAT draining scheme in the sugar industry and will remain under arrest for 72 hours, Legal World magazine reported, citing sources from the prosecutor's office.

Grisha Ganchev is the owner of the Litex FC and the Litex company, based in the northern Bulgarian city of Lovech. As of the end of 2011, Ganchev's joint venture with the Chinese company Great Wall Motors, Litex Motors, started the production of Chinese cars for the EU market in the Litex Motors factory near Bulgaria's Lovech, in the village of Bahovitsa.

On Thursday, officers of the Bulgarian Unit for Combating Organized Crime GDBOP and the National Revenue Agency busted what is said to be organized crime group that incurred hundreds of millions worth of BGN to the state budget, according to the Interior Ministry.

The special operation resulted in six arrests, including Ganchev's son.

Initial reports state that the VAT fraud scheme was invented by the CEO of a commercial company selling large quantities of sugar to retailers.

The sugar is provided from a joint venture in charge of the Bulgarian sugar production plants in Burgas and Devnya.

In a media statement distributed Thursday afternoon, the Interior Ministry reported that the VAT fraudsters had also been planning to import a test quantity of 25 tonnes of sugar containing toxic elements from the region of Chernobyl in Ukraine, the home town of the busted nuclear power plant.

In the event that it could be sold successfully in Bulgaria, the group planned to set up permanent imports of toxic sugar.

If the sugar proved to be of poor quality it would be used for the production of natural juice.

Ganchev himself was summoned Friday to the GDBOP headquarters for a questioning that lasted around fifteen minutes.

Earlier on Friday, the owner of Litex Commerce Grisha Ganchev dismissed as speculations claims of the Interior concerning the involvement of people from the company in VAT draining schemes.

In an interview for the morning broadcast of private TV station bTV, Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov confirmed Thursday's findings, while Grisha Ganchev kept denying the accusations.

Ganchev is one of the biggest sugar importers in the country and owns four out of a total of six sugar refineries in Bulgaria.

The plants are located in Ruse, Sofia, Burgas and Dolna Mitropolia.

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