{"id":160335,"date":"2021-01-05T13:20:16","date_gmt":"2021-01-05T21:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=160335"},"modified":"2021-01-05T15:00:53","modified_gmt":"2021-01-05T23:00:53","slug":"bulgarian-gambling-kingpin-the-skull-launches-political-fightback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bulgarian-gambling-kingpin-the-skull-launches-political-fightback\/","title":{"rendered":"Exiled Bulgarian Gambling Kingpin, \u2018The Skull,\u2019 Launches Political Fightback"},"content":{"rendered":"

A casino and lottery tycoon nicknamed \u201cThe Skull,\u201d<\/a> who fled an organized crime, extortion, and tax evasion rap in his native Bulgaria, is seeking to oust the country\u2019s government at national elections in March, Balkan Insight<\/em> reports.<\/p>\n

\"Vasil
The Skull announces the formation of Bulgarian Summer via Twitter from the United Arab Emirates on Monday. (Image: Twitter\/ Vassil Bojkov)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Vasil Bozhkov<\/a>, sometimes spelled Vassil Bojkov, has registered a new political party called \u201cBulgarian Summer\u201d from his exile in the United Arab Emirates, where he is battling extradition to the Balkan state. Until January last year, he ran Bulgaria\u2019s largest private lottery and was one of the country\u2019s richest men, with interests in casinos, hotels, media outlets, and sports teams.<\/p>\n

But a 2009 US diplomatic report intercepted and leaked by\u00a0Wikileaks<\/em>\u00a0described him as \u201cBulgaria\u2019s most infamous gangster.\u201d Last year, Bulgarian prosecutors accused him of bribing gaming regulators to avoid paying around $317 million in taxes and licensing fees, dating back to 2014.<\/p>\n

Last January, the country\u2019s legislature voted to revoke Bozhkov\u2019s gaming license, nationalize his lottery, and abolish private lotteries in general.<\/p>\n

Voice of the Bold<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Bulgaria has no extradition treaty with the UAE. Bozhkov has spent much of the year in Dubai protesting his innocence and criticizing the government of Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov on Twitter.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s particularly aggrieved about its seizure of his vast collection of ancient Thracian artifacts, some of which prosecutors believe may have been acquired illegally. Now, he\u2019s taking direct action.<\/p>\n

We are the power,\u201d <\/strong>he declared in a 30-second video clip posted on his Twitter account Monday, announcing the establishment of Bulgarian Summer. \u201cThe time for justice is coming, and justice will be for all.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The party\u2019s website currently lacks a manifesto. But it does devote over 1,000 words to criticizing the government\u2019s response to the coronavirus crisis in a section titled, \u201cThe Voice of the Bold.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bozhkov has installed the former marketing director of his sports betting company, Boril Sokolov, as party chairman.<\/p>\n

Rise of the Bulgarian Mafia<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Bozhkov was born in 1956 and graduated in mathematics from the University of Sofia. In 1993, he established a casino and gambling company with Ilya Pavlov, the founder of Multigrup. This was alleged to be the legitimate face of Bulgaria\u2019s biggest organized crime syndicate.<\/p>\n

The period after the fall of the Soviet Union saw the rise of the Bulgarian Mafia, which came to dominate legitimate business within the country, as well as organized crime.<\/p>\n

Pavlov was assassinated in 2004, the day after he testified in the murder trial of former prime minister Andreu Lukanov. No one has ever been charged with those killings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A casino and lottery tycoon nicknamed \u201cThe Skull,\u201d who fled an organized crime, extortion, and tax evasion rap in his native Bulgaria, is seeking to oust the country\u2019s government at national elections in March, Balkan Insight reports. Vasil Bozhkov, sometimes spelled Vassil Bojkov, has registered a new political party called \u201cBulgarian Summer\u201d from his exile […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":160337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13699],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBulgarian Gambling Kingpin, \u2018The Skull,\u2019 Launches Political Fightback<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gambling mogul Vasil Bozhkov, aka Vassil Bojkov, also known as \u201cThe Skull,\u201d launches the Bulgarian Summer Party in search of \u201cjustice.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bulgarian-gambling-kingpin-the-skull-launches-political-fightback\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bulgarian Gambling Kingpin, \u2018The Skull,\u2019 Launches Political Fightback\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gambling mogul Vasil Bozhkov, aka Vassil Bojkov, also known as \u201cThe Skull,\u201d launches the Bulgarian Summer Party in search of \u201cjustice.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bulgarian-gambling-kingpin-the-skull-launches-political-fightback\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-05T21:20:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-01-05T23:00:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/skull.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1477\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"899\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bulgarian-gambling-kingpin-the-skull-launches-political-fightback\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bulgarian-gambling-kingpin-the-skull-launches-political-fightback\/\",\"name\":\"Bulgarian Gambling Kingpin, \u2018The Skull,\u2019 Launches Political Fightback\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bulgarian-gambling-kingpin-the-skull-launches-political-fightback\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bulgarian-gambling-kingpin-the-skull-launches-political-fightback\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/skull.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-05T21:20:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-05T23:00:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Gambling mogul Vasil Bozhkov, aka Vassil Bojkov, also known as \u201cThe Skull,\u201d launches the Bulgarian Summer Party in search of \u201cjustice.\u201d\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bulgarian-gambling-kingpin-the-skull-launches-political-fightback\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bulgarian-gambling-kingpin-the-skull-launches-political-fightback\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bulgarian-gambling-kingpin-the-skull-launches-political-fightback\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/skull.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/skull.jpg\",\"width\":1477,\"height\":899,\"caption\":\"The Skull announces the formation of Bulgarian Summer via Twitter from the United Arab Emirates on Monday. 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