An employee from the State Hunting Estate ‘Rositsa’ in Sevlievo was beaten during an inspection that uncovered suspicious transportation of wooden logs.
The official information regarding the incident states that “a pre-trial proceeding has been initiated,” but there is no mention of the assault in the police bulletin.
It took “Za istinata” (“For the Truth”) about half an hour to work through publicly available information to establish the name of the assailant. This was later confirmed by an employee of the state estate, who explicitly requested that his name not be involved in this story.
It turns out that the attack on the public servant was carried out by Georgi Mihaylov – a notoriously known owner of a logging and woodworking company.
Mihaylov has been known to both foresters and police for years, but little comes of it. His violations remain the same, continue to increase, and go unpunished.
The specific incident occurred on August 17 of this year, in the area of the Sevlievo village of Stokite.
Employees of the hunting estate received a tip about a truck from a logging company transporting coniferous logs. Just before 4 PM, they stopped the vehicle for inspection. Inside, besides the driver, was the company’s forester, but the official information regarding the incident does not mention either his name or the name of the company for which the timber was intended, nor who owns the truck.
In fact, the official information refers to a statement on the website of the Regional Directorate of Forestry (RDF) in Veliko Tarnovo, later disseminated to the media by the press center of the North Central State Enterprise in Gabrovo. Although a report of the attack on the public servant was filed with the police, which dispatched a team to the scene, and the injured man was subsequently hospitalized, the police dispatch for that day does not mention any of this.
During inspection, it was discovered that the vehicle did not have an issued transport ticket. However, about seven minutes later, the driver presented the forestry officials with a newly issued document.
While all of this was happening, the forestry officials received a tip that a second truck from the same company was traveling the same route. One of the foresters went to intercept it, while his colleague remained with the first truck.
During this time, a BMW appeared, and a man got out, insisting that they release his trucks. When he learned that this would not happen and that the trucks loaded with timber would be taken, he “knocked out” the forestry inspector with two punches, a source for “For the Truth” recounts.
The source claims that the man who got out of the BMW is Georgi Mihaylov. An additional detail that is not insignificant in this case is that Mihaylov is a long-time karate practitioner and holds multiple titles in the sport.
Despite the blows received, the officials completed reports on what was established in the forest, and the two trucks, along with the timber loaded on them, were detained in a base for volume measurement. A control forest mark found in one of the trucks was also seized, which, according to official information, does not correspond to the one placed on the logs or the transport ticket.
It remains to be established how many trips the two trucks made that day, as well as their starting and ending points and routes. All of this will be clarified by retrieving information from the GPS devices with which trucks transporting timber are required to be equipped, informed the Regional Directorate of Forestry.
The connection between Mihaylov and the assault is almost public information.
According to the statement published by the Regional Directorate of Forestry, it shows that on August 17 of this year, around the time the inspection began, two transport tickets for the removal of timber were issued. From these, the registration numbers of the trucks stopped for inspection can be seen. One transport ticket was issued seven minutes after the inspection began, while the other shortly thereafter. This aligns perfectly with what the RDF stated, namely that there were no transport tickets at the start of the inspection; they were issued subsequently during the inspection.
The transport tickets easily reveal the logging permits, which indicate how much timber was cut and for whom it is intended. We’re talking about approximately 13 cubic meters of wooden logs in each of the two trucks, specifically white and black pine.
The timber loaded in one truck belongs to “Global Les-83,” a company registered in the village of Sennik near Sevlievo. It was established in 2012 and was owned by Georgi Mihaylov until 2021. In 2021, Mihaylov transferred it to Stanimir Ivanov, who is based in Sennik and has a capital of 250 leva. When inspected in the village in 2021, locals reported they had not heard of their neighbor Stanimir being involved in logging, but they knew he worked for a company owned by Georgi Mihaylov.
There is no information regarding the ownership of the other truck in the logging permit. The buyer of the timber is marked with the letter “S,” and the recipient is similarly identified as “S.” The “address of shipment” states “Sevlievo,” and where it should indicate the ownership of the timber, it simply states “83.” It is unclear whether this is an abbreviation for “Global Les-83.” However, the number of this vehicle appears in other transport tickets, where the buyer is listed as “Global Les Industries.” Georgi Mihaylov is the owner of this company, and his wife, Vanya Mihaylova, is the manager.
From all of this, it is clear that the trucks stopped for inspection in the forest are directly connected to Georgi Mihaylov, who is both the actual and formal owner of logging and woodworking companies.
Mihaylov’s business is certainly notorious,
and his name in the Sevlievo region is associated with violations in the forests – from indiscriminate logging of unmarked trees, transporting timber to addresses where the recipient does not reside according to the transport ticket, to the lack of tracking devices (GPS) on the trucks, non-functioning mandatory surveillance cameras at the woodworking facility, unauthorized construction of forest roads, and inadequate logging records maintained in one of his companies.
In the second half of 2022 alone, the Sevlievo District Court ruled on three cases initiated by a complaint from his wife, Vanya Mihaylova, a forester at one of Mihaylov’s companies, against penalties issued by the Regional Directorate of Forestry (RDF) in Veliko Tarnovo. All three were for illegally logged timber, which Vanya Mihaylova denies. However, the court found the opposite.
In one of the cases, the then-executive director of the Executive Agency on Forests (IAG), Alexander Dunchев, came for an on-site inspection. During this inspection, Dunchев ordered the RDF in Veliko Tarnovo
