Vassil Bozhkov claims one of the rhytons from his confiscated collection is on the market
The former lottery mogul Vassil Bozhkov, who is facing 11 charges in Bulgaria and currently residing in Dubai, claims one of the rhytons from his collection has emerged on the market. Bozhkov is notorious for his vast antique and art collections. Much of it was confiscated by investigative authorities back in January by order of the Prosecutor’s Office.
Bozhkov shared a screenshot of a chat between himself and someone else. The first message is a photo of a rhyton, followed by a text: “It’s on the market. Are you interested?” Bozhkov claims this is one of the rhytons, confiscated by authorities in early 2020. He also shared documents, showing he had bought the piece last April from Yacob’s Gallery in London for $600’000.
The reason why his collection was taken in in the first place is not entirely clear: the charges against him seemed wholly unrelated. Legal experts commented at the time that such an act could only be justified in court in very rare cases and only if the pieces themselves are an element of a crime committed.
Then the Prosecutor’s Office charged Bozhkov with eleven counts of extortion, money laundering and tax evasion. Interestingly, one count concerns Bozhkov’s lotteries’ practice of using a loophole to end up paying less in gambling fees. The damages to the budget, according to tax authorities was more than 200 million leva over a period of five years. Bozhkov’s lotteries have been submitting taxes in the same way for years and nobody from any relevant authority has noticed, it turns out.
It had been open secret that Bozhkov’s businesses and various national authorities were in the best of terms up until late 2019, and likely enjoyed government protection. But then, rather suddenly, the ruling party tabled a bill to make lotteries a national monopoly. The bill would wipe one of the principal businesses of Bozhkov’s – his lottery games. The bill was passed in almost record time, especially considering its impact and scope – and enacted into law in January of this year.
Bozhkov shared a screenshot of a chat between himself and someone else. The first message is a photo of a rhyton, followed by a text: “It’s on the market. Are you interested?” Bozhkov claims this is one of the rhytons, confiscated by authorities in early 2020. He also shared documents, showing he had bought the piece last April from Yacob’s Gallery in London for $600’000.
The reason why his collection was taken in in the first place is not entirely clear: the charges against him seemed wholly unrelated. Legal experts commented at the time that such an act could only be justified in court in very rare cases and only if the pieces themselves are an element of a crime committed.
Then the Prosecutor’s Office charged Bozhkov with eleven counts of extortion, money laundering and tax evasion. Interestingly, one count concerns Bozhkov’s lotteries’ practice of using a loophole to end up paying less in gambling fees. The damages to the budget, according to tax authorities was more than 200 million leva over a period of five years. Bozhkov’s lotteries have been submitting taxes in the same way for years and nobody from any relevant authority has noticed, it turns out.
It had been open secret that Bozhkov’s businesses and various national authorities were in the best of terms up until late 2019, and likely enjoyed government protection. But then, rather suddenly, the ruling party tabled a bill to make lotteries a national monopoly. The bill would wipe one of the principal businesses of Bozhkov’s – his lottery games. The bill was passed in almost record time, especially considering its impact and scope – and enacted into law in January of this year.
Източник: mediapool.bg
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