Bulgarian ‘Coal Emperor’ Behind Compensation Claim against Serbia

"He invested around 110 million euros in Serbia and he lost all that money," Milan Radunovic told BIRN. "He wanted to go to court because our government cancelled the agreement for the coalmine without any reason."

Kovachki's office in Sofia did not respond to a request for comment. Nor did the Serbian government.

Political party connections

Hristo Kovachki. Photo: Wikipedia/Ivan Eleonorov

The claimant in the case, which was registered on April 30 by the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, ICSID, is the Bulgarian firm Kornikom, which paid 17 million euros in 2007 for a 70 per cent stake in the state-owned coalmine in Kovin, a town in Serbia's northern Vojvodina province.

Three years later, Serbia's Privatisation Agency stripped Kornikom of its stake, citing, according to records with the Belgrade Stock Exchange, the company's alleged failure to prevent corruption and "create social stability".

Lawyers for Kornikom said the company disputes this.

"Having reviewed the claim… we're satisfied there's no merit in that, and we're satisfied our client has a good claim," said Robert Wheal, a partner with international law firm White & Case.

Asked about Kovachki, Wheal told BIRN he had never heard of him and that White & Case had never received any instruction from anyone going by that name in the Kornikom case.

Kornikom's sole shareholder, according to its listing in the Bulgarian corporate registry, is 72-year-old Bulgarian economist Dimitar Stefanov, who was an MP for a Bulgarian monarchist party from 2001 to 2005, representing the district of Pleven, where Kovachki has extensive business interests.

Stefanov later switched allegiances to a party called Lider,...