Bulgarian Report on Gal Barak, the ‘Wolf of Sofia” and his real-estate activities

Bivol, the leading investigative journalism platform for the Balkans and Eastern Europe, today published a comprehensive report on the “Wolf of Sofia“, Gal Barak and his wife Marina Barak. This report, written in Bulgarian, explains some interesting aspects of Barak’s money laundering with the Bulgarian investment bank as well as the real estate transactions of the Barak family.

Money-laundering with Investbank

Bivol conducted its own investigation into the case, according to which huge amounts of illegal activity went through accounts at Investbank. A detailed survey shows that the accounts are opened in the name of mailbox companies and offshore companies, and large amounts of cash are drawn from them.

We asked Investbank to inquire whether these offshores, millions of transfers and withdrawal of hundreds of thousands of cash from accounts were controlled in relation to mandatory anti-money laundering measures. The bank replied that they had no legal obligation to refuse to open offshore accounts, the actual owners were aware of them and all suspicious transactions were reported to SANS.

Bivol report published on Sept 11, 2019

Real-estate deals

According to Bivol, Gal Barak spends part of the stolen (“easy money”) on real estate in Bulgaria.

• At the end of 2016, the Israeli acquired a studio of 38.5 square meters in the Student City, for which it counted 74 321.54 leva. Two months later, it bought a second studio of 38.9 square meters. again in the same block on Jacques Nathan Street.
• The following year, Barak acquired an apartment of 129 square meters in Dragalevtsi on Bister Ruchey Street. The wolf from Sofia also becomes the happy owner of three green terraces, from which he can contemplate the conquered Balkan capital. All this costs him a modest 117 349 BGN.
• At the beginning of 2019, Gal Barak expanded his holdings with two stores on 5 Gluharche Street, for which he had to pay a total of BGN 1,202,582.
• After Barak is detained and the processes for his extradition begin, his wife, Marina Barak, acquires a mouth-watering, regulated plot of nearly two acres in Dragalevtsi, on Elovitsa Street. It was acquired in August 2019 for BGN 273,816.

FinTelegram checked and prepared the data in a joint effort with Bivol. Bivol’s journalists carried out the relevant checks and inspections on site in Sofia.