Yesterday we revealed that the new owner of Telekom Albania, Spas Roussev has multiple significant links to the Bulgarian mafia, the international criminal underworld, dubious Russian banks, and a case of auction rigging in the UK.
What was particularly interesting about this takeover was the fact that in October 2018, Telecom Serbia had their bid refused on the grounds that they were not welcome in such a strategic, and sensitive sector. Unfortunately, Edi Rama’s concern for national and citizen security doesn’t seem to extend to mafia crime lords, meaning that the communications of around 32% of the population is soon to be in the hands of a rather shady character.
But it doesn’t just stop there. Russev has stated he is also in talks to take over Telekom Romania as well as Deutsche Telekom’s Macedonian operations. Makedonski Telekom is the most widely used telecoms provider in the country with an almost 50% market share for telephony whilst Telekom Romania has 4.7 million mobile subscribers. Combine this with Albanian users and his substantial interests in Bulgaria and a picture begins to emerge of a significant amount of the Balkan population, having their communications controlled by Mr Russev.
The businessman who shamelessly brags that there is no politician in Bulgaria who wouldn’t pick up his call, has publicly stated that he plans to dominate the area.
“This is the first step in my attempt for consolidation of the Balkan telecommunications market.” He added:
“I am in talks with Deutsche Telekom for their unit in Romania, where due to the size of the deal I am participating with a partner, are underway and at a later stage there will be talks on Macedonia too.”
In addition to this, almost three years ago, Russev purchased Bulgaria’s largest telecom firm (by revenue) BTC which operates under the name ‘Viacom’. The tender for purchase was won for total of EUR 330 million by Roussev and Russian VTB banker and former Finance Minister, Milen Velchev. The deal was, and still is shrouded in allegations of price fixing and assertions from Russian businessman Dmitir Kosarev who sates that he was the majority owner of BTC, having previously acquired shares from the fugitive Bulgarian businessman, Tsvetan Vassilev.
Roussev is also know to be a close associate of Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha the last king of Bulgaria as well as its prime minister between 2001-2005. He forged close relationships with a number of his ministers and was pictured on a yacht in Monaco in 2003 with a number of members of parliament in the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha cabinet, as well as a number of underground crime warlords, including Ivan Todorov, the famous smuggler.
The deal in Albania is expected to be finalised by the end of the first quarter of this year, but I cannot help but think that someone hasn’t done their due diligence. Having worked in law firms dealing with mergers and acquisitions for the best part of a decade, I know how much due diligence should go into sales including background checks, source of funds analysis, and even in some cases, investigations carried out by private investigators. Deals would be regularly thrown into jeopardy by the most seemingly insignificant things, let alone allegations.
It seems to me like no such measures have been taken in this case despite information being readily available. It also concerns me greatly that the privacy and security of telecoms users in Albania is being sold to someone who has undisputed links with organised crime, Russian banks, Russian ex-government members, and the Bulgarian mafia. If this doesn’t worry you as well, then it really should.
