Murdered Bulgarian Businessman Was Car Insurer, Mortgage 'Agent'

The 53-year-old Lazov, aka The Iron One, is pictured here in footage from the bTV channel aired a few weeks ago.

The 53-year-old man, Vasil Lazov, who was shot dead in Bulgaria's capital Sofia in broad daylight on Monday, was a car insurer with a criminal record.

Lazov, a native of Sofia, was gunned down at about 1:40 pm on Monday in the Vitosha quarter in Sofia, not far from his home, the Interior Ministry announced. Lazov was killed near his car on the Byala Ruzha Street.

The gunned down businessman was in trouble with the police three times. Before 1989, still during the communist period, he was sentenced on bribery charges. Back in 2002 his criminal record was "enriched" with document forgery registrations at the Economic Police Directorate (though no sentences).

"What we know at the moment is that he had an office for car insurance, nothing more," the head of the Sofia Police Department Valeri Yordanov is quoted as saying.

Lazov, nicknamed "Zhelezniya", i.e. "The Iron One", is known to have had two firms; both of them were named after his nickname.

The fist one was called "Zhelezniya – Vasil Lazov ET" is no longer active. The second one called "Zhelezniya EOOD" dealt with consultancy and mediation services, manufacturing, trade, construction, transport, restaurant and hotel management.

However, in his personal capacity Lazov is known to have made contracts with dozens of people for mortgage loans. Some of the mortgages loans have been signed on behalf of his firm, the private bTV channel reported.

"His business itself does not assume such aggressive behavior," commented the head of the Sofia police Yordanov, apparently referring to Lazov's assassination.

Several days ago Lazov himself participated in a report of the bTV channel in which he complained of violations by realtors in Sofia's Lyulin Quarter.

Lazov's assassination is the third gangland killing in Bulgaria's Sofia in the past 15 days, after at the end of last week a gambling businessman from the southwestern city of Blagoevgrad Yordan Dinov was killed in Sofia. Dinov's murder was preceded by the assassination of Kiril Kirilov, aka Shkafa, one of the suspects in the Impudent kidnappers' case.

After the first two murders, Bulgaria's Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov declared that there is no escalation of gangland murders.

It is worrying that there have been a few murders in the past 2-3 weeks. We are working actively on these cases. There is no indication that they are connected," Yordanov has commented, adding that he hopes that there will be results "shortly".

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