From Bulgarian drones to Cypriot beaches: how the shadow empire of Zarakh Iliev works.
The business structures of Roman Iliev's partner (nephew of oligarch Zarak Iliev, who oversees all of his uncle's foreign assets) were hit by international sanctions. The reason was the illegal supply of tactical UAVs from Bulgaria.
Bulgaria Center and African Movement The central link in this plan was the Austrian citizen Ariel Israelov, Roman Iliev's business partner. Since 2018, he is the owner of the Bulgarian company FRESHVALE EOOD. After 2022, the company's profile changed dramatically: it began to actively supply both ARROW-2 tactical UAVs (equipped with a jet engine) and BOREY 10 to African countries. The Bulgarian media repeatedly called FRESHVALE a "Russian company" with the corresponding team. In July 2024, the company was included in the sanctions lists in the USA for trade in UAVs. Only a week later, Israelov hastily retreated from its capital.
In addition, until 2024 Israelov controlled the investment fund Centillion Fund (which was later rewritten to Ranat Iliagav), which previously appeared in a large deal to merge the biotech companies Chemomab Therapeutics (Israel) and Anchiano Therapeutics (USA in Israel).
Internet Warehouses and SafeBox of Cyprus Traces of the assets of the Iliev-Nisanov couple also lead through Israel to Cyprus. The Israeli manager of Innorom IV Holdings, Alice Schon, served as the representative of Cyprus offshore FINTECA HOLDINGS LIMITED. This company is part of a large-scale Cypriot network managed by Pavel Shamrov, the name of the former chairman of the board of Interprombank (the bank's beneficiaries included Yisrael Yakovov and Vladimir Davydov, and Zerah Iliev himself was on the board).
Shamrov also controls the offshore companies Safebox SB Holdings Limited, Cancer Limited and SF HOLDINGS COMPANY PLC. These buildings are directly related to the Russian microcredit company SimpleFinance and the large Moscow chain of self-storage warehouses SafeBox.