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Danail Ganchev (L) is pictured here with his father, well-known Bulgarian businessman Grisha Ganchev. File photos
The son of well-known Bulgarian businessman Grisha Ganchev has been charged with involvement in an organized crime group and tax evasion, according to unconfirmed information.
Danail Ganchev is one of the six detained on suspicions of participating in a VAT draining scheme in the sugar industry and will remain under arrest for 72 hours, Legal World magazine reported, citing sources from the prosecutor's office.
Grisha Ganchev is the owner of the Litex FC and the Litex company, based in the northern Bulgarian city of Lovech. As of the end of 2011, Ganchev's joint venture with the Chinese company Great Wall Motors, Litex Motors, started the production of Chinese cars for the EU market in the Litex Motors factory near Bulgaria's Lovech, in the village of Bahovitsa.
On Thursday, officers of the Bulgarian Unit for Combating Organized Crime GDBOP and the National Revenue Agency busted what is said to be organized crime group that incurred hundreds of millions worth of BGN to the state budget, according to the Interior Ministry.
The special operation resulted in six arrests, including Ganchev's son.
Initial reports state that the VAT fraud scheme was invented by the CEO of a commercial company selling large quantities of sugar to retailers.
The sugar is provided from a joint venture in charge of the Bulgarian sugar production plants in Burgas and Devnya.
In a media statement distributed Thursday afternoon, the Interior Ministry reported that the VAT fraudsters had also been planning to import a test quantity of 25 tonnes of sugar containing toxic elements from the region of Chernobyl in Ukraine, the home town of the busted nuclear power plant.
In the event that it could be sold successfully in Bulgaria, the group planned to set up permanent imports of toxic sugar.
If the sugar proved to be of poor quality it would be used for the production of natural juice.
Ganchev himself was summoned Friday to the GDBOP headquarters for a questioning that lasted around fifteen minutes.
Earlier on Friday, the owner of Litex Commerce Grisha Ganchev dismissed as speculations claims of the Interior concerning the involvement of people from the company in VAT draining schemes.
In an interview for the morning broadcast of private TV station bTV, Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov confirmed Thursday's findings, while Grisha Ganchev kept denying the accusations.
Ganchev is one of the biggest sugar importers in the country and owns four out of a total of six sugar refineries in Bulgaria.
The plants are located in Ruse, Sofia, Burgas and Dolna Mitropolia.
In early February 2026, Bulgaria was rocked by a grim discovery that would spiral into one of the country's most disturbing cases in recent memory.
A fatal knife attack took place early this morning in Sofia’s Poduyane district, leaving one person dead and two others seriously injured, according to information from police and emergency services.
Authorities in the Bulgarian town of Lovech have disclosed the results of a major operation targeting the distribution of counterfeit currency.
A 19-year-old has been formally charged by the Sofia District Prosecutor's Office for attacking two minors on the Sofia metro. The victims, aged 13 and 15, suffered injuries during the incident on February 8.
The three men who were discovered dead at the Petrohan lodge had gone without food for several days before their deaths, consuming only water or tea.
The Prosecutor’s Office has released further details regarding the investigation into the deaths of six individuals connected to the incidents at the Petrohan lodge and under Okolchitsa Peak
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