British Families to Protest over Properties in Bulgaria's Bansko

74 British families have purchased appartments in the All Seasons complex in Bansko. Photo by the Trud Daily

UK investors are preparing to stage a rally in the Bulgarian winter resort of Bansko over alleged property fraud carried out by a local firm.

Some 70 British families have paid over GBP 6 M in total for apartments in the All-Seasons holiday complex in Bansko but have been denied access to their properties, the Mail on Sunday has reported.

The Brits plan to gather in Bansko in order to demand to be let in. They bought the apartments through a London real estate firm, Rockarch Estates.

However, Rockarch Estates claims it was cheated by a Bulgarian partner, a Bulgarian woman who is said to have transferred ownership of much of the complex to a Bulgarian firm called Zekom owned by Roman Romanov.

Full Text of the Mail on Sunday article READ HERE

In July 2009, the Struma Daily based in the Southwestern Bulgarian city of Blagoevgrad, not far from Bansko, reported that the owner of Rockarch Estates, Reneta Katchashka, has filed for an investigation against her former business partner, Nadya Sabeva, who is said to have transferred the ownership of 29 apartments, a pool, a spa center, and restaurant from the All-Seasons complex by using fake documents.

Katchashka told the Struma Daily that Sabeva was her partner in the All Seasons Complex from 2004 till 2008, and that in 2008, she forged her signature and had a notary public conduct a deal transferring the ownership of the flats in question to the firm named Zekom.

She also claims that the owner of Zekom, Roman Romanov, was presented to her in 2006 by Sabeva as a general from the Bulgarian intelligence services. Subsequently, in 2008, Romanov began to pressure her to hire his firm to guard the complex in Bansko.

According to Katchashka's account in the Struma Daily, in February 2009, she and her family received death threats from Romanov.