Her name is Maya Metodieva, she was born in Vratsa in 1979 as Maya Krasteva and had a small hairdressing and cosmetics business, but in 2018 she created a very successful IT company. For three years, the annual turnover has risen from zero to BGN 43 million. Maya and her husband Petar moved into a nice house in the village of German, but they also bought an apartment on Str. Tsar Shishman in Sofia. Everything went great for the family until on November 15, Operation Moby Dick of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office fell on Maya. It becomes clear that her successful company is a link in a scheme to drain VAT for 390 million euros, at the top of which is the Neapolitan mafia Camorra.
VAT Carousel
The system used is called by the European prosecutors “VAT Carousel Fraud“. It is characterized by fictitious trade between companies registered in the countries by dummies established in Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Hungary, Georgia, Lithuania, Romania, Poland, Portugal, Estonia – reports the office of the European Chief Prosecutor Laura Kovesi. The fraudulent organization had a pyramid structure. At the top of the pyramid are Rodolphe Baleara and Paolo Flavinià, coordinators, organizers and executors of international VAT fraud, using various foreign companies associated with them for this purpose. Specifically in the investigation of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, the company “Solutions IT” Ltd., in which Maya Metodieva is the sole owner and manager, is quoted. The lady is also listed as a contact of the Balearic and Flavinia for Bulgaria. Maya Metodieva is suspected that since 2018, as a participant in the organized criminal group , she has made available to Solutions IT Ltd. in exchange for receiving a commission for making fictitious purchases from Italian brokerage companies and subsequent fictitious resale directly or through the intermediation of other foreign companies that are part of the fraud to Italian missing traders using the so-called “fake news” method. “closed carousel”. BIRD reviewed the annual financial statements of Solutions IT Ltd., which show the sharp rise of the company. From BGN 208,000 in 2019 to BGN 23,147,000 for 2020, BGN 33,775,000 for 2021 and the most successful 2022 is with BGN 43,598,000. net sales revenue. In 2023, there is a decrease to BGN 24,159,000.
In total, for these years, the turnover of the company with only two insured employees exceeds BGN 123 million.
These mind-blowing turnovers also bring comfortable profits of several hundred thousand leva per year. In addition to “Solutions IT”, Maya Metodieva has participation in the companies “MM Company” Ltd. together with the Italian Fabio Cassotta, as well as in “Stars Property” Ltd., where the partner is “Real Pole Holding” Ltd. of another Italian – Paul Piero Apuzo Di Portanova. These two companies have not filed annual financial statements. Maya’s husband is Petar Metodiev and had a stake in 2019 in Logitek Consult, which he acquired from the Italian Francesco Barbone and resold a year later. Since 2023, Metodiev has been the manager of the company “IL Vincente”, which has a Chinese owner.
Property of Shishman and two guest houses in Rome
A check of BIRD in the Property Register did not find real estate transactions of Metodieva’s three companies. In a personal capacity, she and her husband Petar Metodiev own a two-storey house in the village of German, which appears to have been built in 2021-2022, according to data from Google Earth. It is their main residence, but in addition to it, in 2023 they acquired a modest apartment of 50 sq.m. on str. Tsar Shishman No. 27 for BGN 391,166. or nearly BGN 8000. per sq.m. In order not to be conspicuous, the acquisition is formalized with a mortgage loan. In Italy, Maya Metodieva seems to own two guest apartments in Rome and in very attractive tourist places in the Italian capital. At least, this is what comes out of her message in the Visit Rome group, in which Metodieva advertises her properties. There have been announcements about the holiday properties Cavalleggeri house and Victoria house since December last year, and their last advertisement is from the end of October this year.
Our attempts to contact Maya Metodieva on the phone of the company “Solutions IT” did not yield results, but in the Viber application this number is associated with Maya herself. The two phones associated with her husband Petar Metodiev were also not active. It seems that this is the largest amount of fraud that the European Public Prosecutor’s Office in Bulgaria has revealed. But here we are talking about VAT fraud, not about misuse of European funds. The results for the latter are measly and so far there have been no revelations of political corruption, without which the theft of hundreds of millions of European money would not have been possible. Lead photo: Maya Metodieva on the terrace of the “Palm” – the artificial island of Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, with a view of the skyscrapers (left), the poster from the announcement of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office for Operation “Moby Dick”.
Материалът From Vratsa to the Camorra: The Bulgarian Trail in the Operation “Moby Dick” of the European Prosecutor’s Office е публикуван за пръв път на BIRD.
