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The war  between Glorient Investment BG OOD (“Glorient”) and the successful young man Delyan Peevski is entering its new  ‘trench war’  phase. It seems that all trumps have been pulled out of the sleeves and all that remains now is a ‘war of nerves’.

On Monday (12 September) at a specially arranged press conference the international company investing in real estate properties announced that they will invest about 10 million Euro in construction of a new, third building in the Logistic Park  East Ring near Sofia.

Glorient is an international company  40% of whose shares are owned by the British company East Balkan Properties Plc. There they execute custody of assets of various financial institutions such as BNY MELLON, BNP PARIBAS, DEUTSCHE BANK and CITIBANK that have invested in it. The other major partner is Hristo Kusev who owns nearly all the remaining shares.

It was announced by Glorient that the new building would be suitable for a warehouse, a light industry factory, as well as for other purposes. In itself, such a new economic initiative would hardly be so exciting for the mass media if it were not clearly showing that the international company was not going to give up the Bulgarian market because of the conflict with Peevski and the damages it would  suffer because of him.

Glorient was established in  2005 and to date it owns  27 real estate properties in  17 towns throughout  Bulgaria. In the last decade the company has received revenue from rentals amounting to 167 million BGN. In 2006 Glorient purchased 13 sites from K & K Electronics EAD (К & К). Later the Company reorganized as Technomarket Bulgaria AD (the Company managing the business of shops with the brand name Technomarket – called hereinafter only Technomarket). Early this year the store chain for  black and white home appliances was taken over by MRF MP and big media owner  Delyan Peevski. The company  NSN Investment EOOD, which is linked to the  infamous chair of SANS (state agency national security) elected for  2 days on Friday, 14 June 2013, acquired the share of the Italian businessman Edoardo Miroglio in  Technomarket. Immediately after that it was announced from Technomarket that the sale of properties by К & К to  Glorient (that took place full 10 years ago!) was fictitious and actually the shops had abruptly become property of  Peevski, after he established control over  Technomarket. The chain has been refusing to pay rent for the 14 properties where its outlets are housed and which belong  to Glorient. Peevski is refusing to pay even for sites that have not been purchased from  К & К, such as the shops in  Sevlievo, Kardzhali and Pazardzhik.

Glorient sought defense of their rights at court and filed suits against the defaulting tenants. The international company claims that to date the obligation of Technomarket amounts to  over 2 million Euro. Every month the principal is increasing by another 300 000 Euro. Glorient have filed  21 cases against Technomarket in the courts in: Blagoevgrad, Sandanski, Pleven, Varna, Stara Zagora and Sofia. On their turn  Technomarket have filed counter suits, which are already 6. Their number is expected to go up. The purpose of Peevski’s lawyers is “to declare void the originally signed building rental contracts “. Moreover, Technomarket request reimbursement of the already paid rents since  2006! And while court proceedings keep going at various instances,  Glorient continues to incur monthly losses.

It is curious that in Blagoevgrad the case of  Glorient was assigned to Petar Uzunov, brother of Dimitar Uzunov, representative of the  Supreme Judicial Council. Thus he will be an arbitrator  between Delyan Peevski and  Glorient in Blagoevgrad. Dimitar Uzunov became popular after publication of the records related to #Yanevagate revealing talks between the already ex-judges  Rumyana Chenalova and Vladimira Yaneva. In these records the representative of the SJC Uzunov emerged as the magistrate acting as an intermediary  between Prime minister Boyko Borisov and judges on important issues. One of the scandals at the SJC was related to the refusal of the body representing the Judiciary, to check Katya Belyova,  administrative head of the Court in  Blagoevgrad, who delegated rights to Dimitar Uzunov’s brother Petar to assign commercial and civil cases. That right was not given to the line deputy chair of the court in spite of the fact that judge Petar Uzunov’s wife works as a judge for the same court. And sure enough, the case of Glorient against  Technomarket was “randomly assigned” precisely to Petar Uzunov. Is anybody surprised to hear that?

The entire situation is in painful rapport with yesterday’s farewell speech of H.E. Xavier Lapeyre de Cabanes, French ambassador to Bulgaria. He said: “Authoritarian regimes first try to take over the Judiciary. We see that in some neighboring states. Free people are striving after a  system that guarantees that conflicts will be resolved only in a peaceful way, through negotiations, or with the assistance of a neutral arbitrator  – a judge. This is the main difference compared to totalitarian regimes.”

Time will show to what extent judge Petar Uzunov is going to be independent.  The mere fact, however, that a family connected to the very essence of the #WHO model will be deliberating on such cases is more than indicative.