The acting Minister of Agriculture, Yavor Gechev, reinstated the director of the regional agricultural service in Silistra, Ginka Kateva, at the end of 2022. The reason for this decision was that she is the only competent person able to organize auctions for leasing lands from the state land fund. However, this does not only pertain to the controversial auctions she organized for leasing agricultural land, which benefited publicly known individuals, including the regional coordinator of GERB, Todor Stamatov.
Kateva has signed a 10-year lease agreement with him. However, there are other tender procedures that are equally interesting and raise questions regarding the competence of the law enforcement authorities.
One such example is the auction organized under the Law on Ownership and Use of Agricultural Lands (Article 27, paragraph 8). But here, it is not about leasing; it concerns the sale of state lands.
In 2021, Ginka Kateva announced the sale via auction of part of the lands from the former agricultural yards of the village of Aydemir. Unlike other agricultural yards that have been subject to similar procedures and are located in remote villages, this location is quite desirable. It is situated along the central street of the village and near the “Delenki” neighborhood, effectively making Aydemir a suburb of Silistra. Coincidentally, it is located across from the home of Ginka Kateva. These are former collective farm lands, which are now being privatized through the agricultural services. They are formally classified as agricultural lands and therefore sold in accordance with the law on agricultural land.
The tender procedure for these lands began with an order from the director issued on April 16, 2021. The land was divided into three separate plots, each measuring 5.265 decares, totaling 15.795 decares. The starting auction price announced in the order for each plot is 20,557 leva, resulting in a total of 61,671 leva. According to the order, all interested parties were invited to participate in the auction. However, according to the law, neighboring property owners must be invited to the first auction. In this specific case, there is no evidence that this happened.
Moreover, at least two participants are required for the auction to take place at all. According to the ranking protocol, exactly two participants showed up. It turns out that
these participants are not random.
One of them is the registered Sofia-based meat company “Edrina” Ltd. Its owner, Nikolai Nikolov, is acquainted with Ms. Kateva and Stefan Tonchev – the man she lives with and who supplies their two stores in the Silistra market. The other participant is the company “Agrostaf” Ltd., which gained notoriety for its involvement in the tender procedure with the undisclosed 243 properties for leasing state land, from which the company won 30 properties in the village of Pop Kralево, while the regional coordinator of GERB, Todor Stamatov, secured all the remaining ones.
The tender procedure for the lands of the agricultural yard in Aydemir took place on May 28, 2021. With an order issued on October 11 of the same year, Ginka Kateva announced “Edrina” Ltd. as the winner in the competition between the two participants. The difference in the proposed price between the first and second participants is only 40 leva, as revealed in the published protocol on the website of the agricultural service. With an announced starting auction price of 20,557 leva for each of the three plots that make up the total area, the participant “Edrina” proposed 20,600 leva. The other participant, “Agrostaf,” offered 20,560 leva, which is 40 leva less than the winner.
Thus, in accordance with the results of the auction, on November 9, 2021, Ginka Kateva signed a contract for the sale of state land – private property – with the company “Edrina” Ltd. and its manager, Nikolai Nikolov. With this contract, the said plots were transferred to the company. Kateva acted as an authorized representative of the Minister of Agriculture, and her address as listed on her ID card, where she actually resides, is included in the contract.
Subsequently, however, with a notary act dated March 2, 2022, just four months later, the manager of “Edrina,” Nikolai Nikolov, transferred ownership of the three properties to Stefan Tonchev – the man with whom Ginka Kateva lives at her address in the village of Aydemir. According to the notary act, the price at which the three properties were transferred was 62,000 leva. This is the same price at which they were purchased at the auction, but with a symbolic addition of 200 leva.
Of course, it contradicts normal logic for someone, especially a businessman, to purchase such an attractive property and then sell it shortly after, during a time of rising prices, for the same price and with almost no profit. Unless there was a
preliminary agreement
to operate in such a manner. The notary act for the sale lists the address, as per the ID card, where the buyer, Stefan Tonchev, lives – which is the same as the address where Kateva resides in the village of Aydemir. The tax assessment of the properties, as shown in the notary act, is 85,000 leva. At the same time the properties were transferred from Nikolai Nikolov to Stefan Tonchev, a new store specializing in selling products from “Edrina” Ltd. opened in the central market of Silistra. This raises again the question
of whether there might have been some preliminary agreement
or conditions prior to the auction.
We contacted the manager of “Edrina,” Nikolai Nikolov, by phone and asked him what prompted him to sell the properties at the same price shortly after acquiring them, and whether there was a preliminary agreement with Ginka Kateva and Stefan Tonchev for this to happen in order to satisfy their investment interests.
The businessman explained to “For the Truth” that initially he intended to invest in the plot, but later changed his mind and decided to sell it quickly so it wouldn’t be a burden. He added that a sudden health issue contributed to his decision. When asked why he sold the properties specifically to Stefan Tonchev, he replied that he offered them to him because they knew each other, and he agreed to buy them immediately.
The properties in question are state-owned. Therefore, although the transfer contract with the buyer was signed by Ginka Kateva, the regional governor with administrative center in Silistra is recorded as the seller in the property register. The sale of these state lands in 2021 was also approved by the then-regional governor and current candidate for deputy from GERB, Ivelin Ivanov. His signature appears on a number of documents.
In addition to the three state plots purchased at attractive prices by Stefan Tonchev, Ginka Kateva acquired around 60 decares of agricultural land from private individuals in the area of the village of Aydemir in 2021, as shown in the property register.
In May 2022, she transferred 10 decares of these lands to Stefan Tonchev. The notary acts for all transactions list the common address where both reside in Aydemir. The average price for these plots during this period is around 2,000 leva. This indicates not only common economic interests between the two in acquiring land but also substantial financial means to achieve them. As evident from the property register, these means arose between 2020 and 2022 – the period during which Kateva was the director of the Regional Directorate of Agriculture in Silistra, as similar transactions for both had not been recorded for more than ten years prior.
In addition to their interests in real estate, Ginka Kateva and Stefan Tonchev also have interests in movable property. Not just any property, either. Since 2022, the two have been managing a brand new Porsche Cayenne. The vehicle is registered in the name of Stefan Tonchev.
Another interesting and rather extravagant asset is a house-boat, complete with motorboats underneath and a roof in Japanese style. This unique structure is situated on the banks of the Danube River, right next to the ferry port in Silistra, in the area of Aydemir. According to our sources, this floating property serves both as a retreat for the family and as a base for their fish shops, and together with the moored boats, it has cost owners Stefan Tonchev and Ginka Kateva over 100,000 leva.
We asked questions on-site at Kateva’s office regarding whether there was a preliminary agreement for the sale of the state lands in Aydemir with the final buyer, the man with whom she lives. We also inquired about the source of the funds for the purchase – whether they came from salaries, profits from the fish and meat shops, or some other source.
Kateva responded that she is not married to Stefan Tonchev, that they have two children, and that she does not own any shops or companies in her name. In other words, the matters we asked her about do not pertain to her. We also sent the questions in writing to the email address of the agricultural service in case she reconsiders and decides to provide more details, but there has been no response so far.
We also sought a comment from Stefan Tonchev by phone with the same questions. He responded by saying
to mind our own business.
We are indeed minding our business!
All documents indicate that the two live at the same address and aggressively pursue common economic goals. Stefan Tonchev has two companies registered in his name. The first, “Stemar 2019” Ltd., was registered in 2019, with a business focus on trading fish products. Through this company, the “Kormoran” store in the Silistra market is serviced. The other company, “Agri Stemar” Ltd., was registered in May 2022, with a business focus on the sale of meat and dairy products. Through this company, meat products from “Edrina” Ltd. are sold. The two stores are located next to each other. The headquarters of both companies managed by Stefan Tonchev are registered at the same address, which is the same as the one in the village of Aydemir, where he lives with Ginka Kateva.
Besides these two companies, in July 2022, while Ginka Kateva was removed as director of the agricultural service in Silistra and investigations into her tenders were ongoing, another company named “Agrigid” Ltd. was registered in Stefan Tonchev’s name. This company focuses on agricultural consulting, purchasing and leasing land, and activities as an agricultural producer. Stefan Tonchev has no experience in these activities, but the company is in partnership with Denitsa Dimitrova, who is well-versed in how this sector operates.
There is also an address match here.
The headquarters of “Agrigid” is located at 2 Hristo Smirnenski Street. The same address is home to the Regional Directorate of Agriculture – Silistra. In fact, the newly furnished office for “consulting” in agriculture is situated on the first floor of the “Trade Unions” building in Silistra. However, after Ginka Kateva’s reinstatement as director, the office did not commence its operations and currently remains closed.
A check on the website of the Regional Directorate of Agriculture in Silistra shows that declarations of assets and interests of its employees are not published. There is also no publicly available data on what individuals have declared regarding related parties and participation in companies, but all the data collected thus far indicate clear connections that Ginka Kateva cannot deny.
It remains to be seen what the investment intention is for the state lands purchased by Stefan Tonchev in Aydemir. According to unconfirmed information, the lands are expected to be transformed into a photovoltaic park.
