Vasil Bozhkov

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

Vasil Krumov Bozhkov (Васил Крумов Божков; born July 29, 1956) is a Bulgarian politician and a businessman, considered the richest Bulgarian with a fortune estimated at between 1 and 3 billion Bulgarian levs.

Known by the nickname The Skull (Черепа, Cherepa), in internal correspondence of the US State Department he was described as "the most infamous gangster in Bulgaria."

Vasil Bozhkov has a single child, a 18-year-old boy named Rostislav Yordanov.

Bozhkov graduated from the National Mathematical High School in Sofia.

He has two higher educations – specialty "Applied Mathematics" at Sofia University and "Labor Economics" at the University of National and World Economy.

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

He soon opened a chain of exchange offices.

In 1991 he registered his main company Nove Holding, in which he is the largest shareholder and since 2005 – chairman of the board of directors.

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

He opened a casino in the Rila Hotel in Sofia.

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

In 1994, Bozhkov opened the Bulgarian Commercial Industrial Bank (BTIB), which in 1996–1997 merged with Credit Group of Multigroup.

Bull Ins took over the SIC's "insurance" structures after they did not receive a license in 1998.

In 2000, he bought the assets of the bankrupt First Private Bank.

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

In 2004 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".

Its executive director is Kiril Hristoskov.

The foundation is mainly engaged in exhibiting and promulgating antiquities owned by Bozhkov, but has also financed archaeological excavations in 2005–2007.

In 2005 the collection was described by Ivan Marazov.

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

The main shareholder in Holding Roads is ABV Engineering, which is owned by Nove International (a subsidiary of Nove Holding).

Through Holding Roads, Bozhkov bought a large part of the regional state road construction companies, which were previously owned by the General Directorate of Roads.

In 2006, the Polish magazine Wprost estimated Bozhkov's fortune at $1 billion, in 2007 at $1.5 billion, and in 2008 at $1.35 billion.

Part of it is exhibited in Brussels (2006) and Moscow (2009).

In 1999 he bought PFC CSKA AD, which he subsequently sold to Pramod Mittal (4 December 2006).

As of 2007, he co-owned the casinos at Radisson SAS and Hemus and the bingo halls.

At the end of 2007, when allocating the surplus of the national budget and expressing doubts about the objectivity of the distribution, Vasil Bozhkov's companies took 47.7 million levs from the money allocated under the Republican Road Infrastructure Fund.

As a collector, Bozhkov declared himself against the Cultural Heritage Act adopted in 2009.

In 2009, he declared footballers "modern gladiators".

On 5 January 2009, the General Meeting of Holding Roads voted for Bozhkov an additional remuneration of 3.84 million levs.

The Financial Supervision Commission does not report any irregularities.

Bozhkov is suspected of having close ties to the SIC group.

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

In 2011 the National History Museum hosted the exhibition "Thrace and the Ancient World XV-I century BC. – Vasil Bozhkov Collection ", containing 230 monuments of Thracian and Greco-Roman art.

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

The businessman claims that for a period of one year he has invested nearly 25 million Bulgarian levs in the club.

On 2 June 2020, he transferred the entire stake to football legend Nasko Sirakov.

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