24 Facts About Vasil Bozhkov

Vasil Bozhkov graduated from the National Mathematical High School in Sofia.

Vasil Bozhkov started his business in 1989 near the Magura confectionery in Sofia, where currencies, antiques and weapons were illegally sold.

In 1991, Vasil Bozhkov became a partner with Iliya Pavlov and Mladen Mihalev-Majo in the gambling company IGM.

Vasil Bozhkov opened a casino in the Rila Hotel in Sofia.

In 2006, Vasil Bozhkov bought the former HD Roads privatization fund through the stock exchange.

Vasil Bozhkov has been a member of the Confederation of Large Industrialists and of the Bulgarian Business Club "Vazrazhdane" since the founding of each of the two associations in 1993 and 2001.

In 2004 Vasil Bozhkov established the Thrace Foundation with the official goal of "organizing and supporting the search for and preservation of cultural values, part of the Bulgarian and world cultural and historical heritage".

Vasil Bozhkov owns a collection of antiques, which historian Bozhidar Dimitrov claims were exported from Bulgaria before 1911 and purchased abroad.

In 1993, Vasil Bozhkov founded the sports betting agency Eurofootball, which since 2002 has included Greek billionaire Sokratis Kokkalis as a partner with his company Intralot.

In 2000 Vasil Bozhkov was elected chairman of the Bulgarian Shooting Federation, and in 2003 he headed the Bulgarian Chess Federation.

In February 2019, with a special press release from the company "Nove Holding" Vasil Bozhkov announced that he became the owner of PFC Levski Sofia and took care of its management, financing and long-term development.

The financial circles and the press have expressed doubts that Vasil Bozhkov is manipulating the minority owners by draining Nove Holding by taking out non-public subsidiaries and bonuses for himself.

Vasil Bozhkov is suspected of having close ties to the SIC group, a Bulgarian organized crime group.

Vasil Bozhkov is considered a co-owner of the Bull Ins insurance company, although the nominal owners are offshore companies and the connection is unprovable.

Vasil Bozhkov's name is mentioned in the WikiLeaks correspondence leaked to the US Embassy in Bulgaria.

Together with Todor Batkov, Grisha Ganchev and the brothers Krasimir and Nikolay Marinov, leaders of the SIC crime group, Vasil Bozhkov was given as an example "of some of the most famous connections" of Bulgarian business with organized crime.

Vasil Bozhkov had been living in self imposed exile in Dubai since January 2020, until he returned to Bulgaria in August 2023, whereupon he was detained.

In March, 2022 Tsvetomir Naydenov and Boyan Naydenov, former business partners of Vasil Bozhkov, mentioned in an interview that he had confessed to them that he had ordered the murder of Bulgarian businessman Manol Velev, who was shot in 2006 and remained in a coma until his death on March 25,2022.

Vasil Bozhkov asked in 2023 to return to Bulgaria as a protected witness against ex-prime minister Boyko Borissov, who he says received money from Vasil Bozhkov.

On 10 February 2023 the United Kingdom HM Treasury imposed sanctions, considering Vasil Bozhkov an involved person under the Global Anti-Corruption Sanctions Regulations, involved in serious corruption.

On 8 June 2020, Vasil Bozhkov announced from his rented apartment in Dubai that he had plans to enter politics after returning to Bulgaria.

Vasil Bozhkov was chosen as the list-leader for the coalition "Center" for the 2024 European Parliament Elections.

Vasil Bozhkov married Maya Angelova Bozhkova in 1980, they had a single child, born in 1986, named Anton Bozhkov.

Vasil Bozhkov is currently in a relationship with Elena Dineva, who is 13 years younger than him.