Mihail Mariykov Stoyanov is considered a favorite of Georgi Cholakov – the chairman of the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC), also known as the “Court of Miracles“. The young man with ease wins competitions for desirable positions in the judiciary. Триумфалният му рейд минава през позиции на адвокат, съдия по вписванията и магистрат. На Стоянов обаче явно му липсва мотивация да прави кариера на съдия, вероятно поради натовареността и стреса в битността на магистратите. Сега His ambition is to become a notary like his mentor Cholakov. The story of Mihail Stoyanov
is the story of a young man who has tremendous success and easily achieves professional success and career realization that are beyond the reach of many high-class lawyers. He started studying higher education relatively late – in 2012, when he was almost 30 years old. He graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of National and World Economy on time. In the spring of 2019, we find it in List of candidates admitted to take an oral bar exam. Obviously, it was successfully passed, because later in 2019 Mihail Mariykov Stoyanov was registered as Junior lawyer with the start of activity on November 1, 2019. from the Sofia Bar Association. But he did not retire from the legal field. He was ranked in the competition for Registry Judge Since November 2019, he has been a full-time member of the Sofia Regional Court (SRC). Stoyanov did not stay long, only for three months from 03.07.2023 to 19.10.2023, and as a junior judge at the Sofia City Court (SCC).
Junior, but not accidental
It is impressive that at the same competition, again in the Special Surveillance Service, Elena Bozhurska was ranked. She gained popularity as a lawyer for Tsvetan Tsvetanov. The young lady is the daughter of the appointed by GERB regional governor of Sliven Chavdar Bozhurski. He is a former director of the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Interior in the city under the Blue Stones with a very controversial reputation. His name is associated with a series of scandals. Bozhurski is considered extremely close to the Chairman of the Supreme Administrative Court Georgi Cholakov and his late brother Petko Cholakov. Georgi Cholakov is a member of the Supreme Administrative Court, which Recovering Bozhurski when he was dismissed from the Ministry of Interior. This was one of the main obstacles against the election of Cholakov as Chairman of the Supreme Administrative Court in 2017. In the case in which Bozhurski was reinstated, there are doubts that the judge from the panel that reinstated him – Georgi Cholakov – is biased, but the magistrate is not withdrawn.
Another non-random candidate ranked in the competition for registry judges is Yordanka Uzunova-Gocheva. She is the daughter of a judge Dimitar Uzunov – former member of the SJC. The competition is among those that give the impression of opacity and bias. There are 706 candidates, and the vacancies Only 44. Юристите от кариерата считат, че Competition was very amused by the Justice Department, of which Danail Kirilov was then the head. Among those appointed at that time were mainly candidates who were close to GERB and MRF. Years after this “race”, there will still be comments on the “tariffs” at which some of the candidates had paid and the political protections that others used to achieve success. The balance of the race is that there are obviously no random among the chosen ones.
Krasimir Nachev was also appointed as a registry judge after this competition. Prior to that, he was director of the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Interior in Pleven, but in 2018 and 2019 he flared up gangster war among the drug dealers in the city. An hour of them claim that the police are racketeering them en masse for money, as well as that law enforcement officers planted drugs on people who were inconvenient for them in Pleven. After these revelations, Nachev, who is considered very close to Mladen Marinov, becomes unacceptable as a police chief. Thus, he found himself among the newly elected judges of the registry. He was appointed to the district court in Lukovit.
Obviously, Mihail Mariykov Stoyanov falls into the category of non-accidental and the competition from 2019 is evidence of this. We find his name in a register of declarations from the Ministry of Justice for 2022. 35 of the Anti-Corruption and Forfeiture of Illegally Acquired Property Act. In view of this fact, we can conclude that Stoyanov has remained as a registry judge for almost 3 years. If we follow the logic of life, as it should be, we can conclude that in these 2-3 years Mihail Mariykov Stoyanov studied hard and prepared for magistracy exams.
From magistrate to notary
On 26 July 2022, the Judges’ Collegium of the Supreme Judicial Council adopted a final list of the approved candidates for junior judges and Mihail Mariykov Stoyanov is among them. At a meeting on June 27, 2023, the Judges’ College of the SJC appointed him to the position of “junior judge” at the Sofia City Court as of July 3 of the same year. Chronologically, it seems that the young man is walking with confident steps towards the career of a magistrate. However, on October 10, 2023, the Judges’ College of the SJC relieved him of his position as a junior judge in the SCC, as of 18.10.2023. The most significant documentary evidence from the young man’s magistrate career can be found in For failure to submit a declaration under Art. 175 a, para. 1, item 1 of the JSA within the time limit specified by law, he was sanctioned with BGN 210 after an agreement of October 5, 2023.
After resigning as a magistrate, Mihail Mariykov Stoyanov apparently devoted himself to the study of property law and is among those admitted to the exam for notaries. It is number 350 in the list of approved candidates. They are 523 in total. The results of the written exam are expected to become clear at the end of September. The list was approved by Order SD-05-139/24.06.2024 of the Minister of Justice Maria Pavlova. According to BIRD sources, inside the system, Stoyanov’s place as a notary is secure. The announcement of the competition for notaries was delayed for more than a year. Many assumed that the delay was actually because the end of the mandate of Georgi Cholakov, who was supposed to return to the field of notary, was expected. In fact, this detail becomes clear from the statements of the ex-chairman of “DA Bulgaria” Hristo Ivanov to the parliamentary committee on the Notary.
“Peevski raised the issue of Cholakov several times, it became clear that they maintain close communication. First, he wanted the presidents of the Supreme Court of Cassation and the Supreme Administrative Court to be able to be elected for a second term. We persuaded Peevski to give up this insistence. After that, the plot continued with the question whether Georgi Cholakov could be nominated as a candidate for constitutional judge. When it became clear that our side would not be supported, questions began about the possibilities of being a notary. Peevski was concerned about what would happen if only those with money remained in the SAC – that there would be no control and political influence. He mentioned two names who kept in touch with Cholakov – lawyer Veselin Dimitrov and Mirinski (probably Ivan Mirinski) “
Stoyanov’s rapidly developing career, according to our sources, is not at all the result of his innate intelligence and charm. He is considered by many to be a protégé of the Chairman of the Supreme Administrative Court Georgi Cholakov. Whether the competition for notaries is fun for Cholakov or for Stoyanov, we cannot know. A curious fact is that the procedure was launched only when Mihail Mariykov Stoyanov had the required legal experience of 5 years to participate in the competition.
It is possible that the President of the Supreme Administrative Court at the last moment decided that he would give the reserved place to his protégé, but these are only assumptions. At this stage, it will be very difficult, even impossible, for Cholakov to leave the judiciary as a constitutional judge. In view of Delyan Peevski’s obvious need for strong figures in the judiciary, over whom he has influence, it is very likely that Cholakov will remain in the SAC, for example as chairman of the Second Division. He held this position before he was chosen as one of the three big ones.
It is said that Cholakov and his deputy Gaidov will try to produce the election of a new chairman of the SAC, which will be more than convenient for them. Obviously, in view of the new realities, Cholakov’s retirement to the quiet haven of notarial activity is not acceptable to the circle that patronizes him politically. Probably now, more than ever, Peevski will need magistrates like Cholakov and Gaidov, who are allegedly subject to his wishes. This could largely explain why his close friend – Mihail Mariykov Stoyanov is on the list of admitted notaries. It is possible, of course, that the delay in the competition is also the result of the negligence of state officials in the Ministry of Justice. The fact is, however, that this delay allows Stoyanov to participate in the competition.
Biographical parallels
There are some very strange coincidences in the biography of Mihail Stoyanov and Georgi Cholakov. On March 1, 2012, Cholakov took office as a judge at the Supreme Administrative Court. It comes from an external competition. It is said that it was a personal choice of the wife of the then chairman Georgi Kolev, with whom, in addition to fellow citizens, they were also close acquaintances. Before joining the Supreme Administrative Court, Cholakov briefly left the judiciary. From March 1, 2009 to March 1, 2012, he was a notary in Balchik. In 2012, when Cholakov returned to the judiciary and to Sofia, the 29-year-old Mihail Mariykov Stoyanov began studying law at the University of National and World Economy. In 2015, the studious young man from the village of Aydemir – Silistra region acquired a home in the capital. Later, at the same address – on Parchevich Street, he will register as a junior lawyer.
Visiting Pchelin
In fact, the relationship between Cholakov and Stoyanov is not hypothetical and is not built only on coincidences in time. It is rather documented indirectly.
On Mihail Stoyanov’s profile on social networks, he has uploaded a photo of a pool with wooden cladding. For the BIRD team, this pool is very well known. We do not need to see the marking from the village of Pchelin to know that this view of the house of the Chairman of the Supreme Administrative Court Georgi Cholakov, acquired for only BGN 10,000.
The house in question with a swimming pool in Pchelin is subject to a thorough inspection on behalf of BIRD in 2022, because the deal for the acquisition of the property was confessed at BGN 10,000. This raises concerns that the deal is simulated. After the announcement of this purchase, the President of the Supreme Administrative Court was nicknamed “Joro the Pool”. Apparently, however, the efforts to acquire the property were worth it, because there were many happy moments in this house in Pchelin. This is evidenced by Stoyanov’s photo from July 11, 2020, at that time he was a registry judge at the Sofia Regional Court. It is noteworthy that the photography was liked by Veselin Dimitrov.
Veselin Dimitrov – Vesko “The Lyutenitska” has been gaining popularity again in recent days after the hearing of Hristo Ivanov by the parliamentary committee on the Notary. According to the former chairman of DA Bulgaria, Veselin Dimitrov is one of the persons through whom Peevski maintains contact with Georgi Cholakov.
Back in 2023, BIRD told about the Gordian knot of our justice system, in which many corruption plots and “dirty little secrets” are intertwined. In the last 10 years, three fellow students have turned out to be the most influential personalities in the SJC and in the justice system. One of them is former Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov. The second is the current chairman of the Supreme Administrative Court, Georgi Cholakov. The third person for whom the judiciary and especially the Supreme Administrative Court act as a magic lamp fulfilling all kinds of desires is Veselin Petkov Dimitrov, convicted of a deliberate crime, better known in the circles as Vesko “Lyutenitska“. At the moment, he is a lawyer, but before the verdict he was an administrative judge, and before that he administered justice in commercial cases in the Plovdiv District Court under the supervision of Tsatsarov. After Publication of 2023, we were reproached for sparing the name of Lyubomir Gaidov, who was also a fellow student with the three listed above, but this fact was not known to us. The fact that Veselin Dimitrov likes Martin Stoyanov’s photos from Cholakov’s house in Pchelin is probably also not unimportant. This is another evidence of a special relationship between them.
Another very active user of Mihail Stoyanov’s profile is Desislava Genova. She is also a recent magistrate. Intervenes as a junior judge on July 1 this year. The lady graduated in law from the University of National and World Economy, like Stoyanov.
In a protocol dated January 23, 2023, we find that Desislava Genova was ranked second in a competition for the appointment of judicial assistants, announced by the then acting administrative head of the Sofia Regional Court. According to several independent sources, Judge Genova is part of the circle of friends of Mihail Stoyanov and Cholakov. The Examination Commission on Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure, appointed by the SJC, express strong dissatisfaction from the training of judges from the class of magistrates who graduated from the NIP last year. Mihail Stoyanov falls into this group. It is clearly stated that lawyers without the necessary knowledge have ended up there.
In the mandate of Georgi Cholakov, as Chairman of the Supreme Administrative Court, there is a worrying trend of personnel policy, implemented as a result of obvious dependencies. They govern the initial appointment of judges in the ordinary and administrative courts. The case of Mihail Mariykov Stoyanov, known to the judiciary as Misheto, is not a precedent at all. The judiciary is increasingly becoming a caste in which membership is transmitted by blood, corruption or gender. The election of administrative heads passes under the same sign. According to many career magistrates, through the infiltration of persons with dependence in the judiciary and in particular in leadership positions, the easiest way to ensure the failure of the idea of its effective self-government is to be guaranteed. Proof of this are the data on the manipulated election of members of the SJC from the judicial quota.
Naturally, such processes took place long before Georgi Cholakov became the head of the Supreme Administrative Court, but in recent years they have been far more widespread and obvious. It is assumed that Cholakov has created a lobby through appointments in the various units of the judiciary and is capable of producing court decisions that are needed by the political circle that patronizes him.
Lead photo: Mihail Stoyanov (left) next to the pool in Cholakov’s house in the village of Pchelin, Georgi Cholakov against the background of his property with a swimming pool in the village of Pchelin. Collage: BIRD.BG
Материалът Successful young lawyer: Cholakov’s protégé conquers the judiciary е публикуван за пръв път на BIRD.
