Baba Alino Case in Bulgaria Deepens: Stolen Water, Fake Contracts, New Illegal Complex Close By
In late May 2026, Bulgarian authorities exposed a complex of 104 buildings built without permits in the Baba Alino locality near Varna, on land registered as forest inside a Natura 2000 protected zone. The investor was Oleg Nevzorov, a Ukrainian businessman who has since fled to Turkey, and his company KYB Corporation. Our earlier two articles covered the background and the first wave of developments. This is what has emerged in the past several days.Water Supply & Treatment
The Baba Alino story has now reached the stage where every inspection produces a new violation. The complex was already known to be illegally constructed. It now turns out to have been illegally watered as well.
Two Illegal Wells, Possibly More
On a tip from the “Revival” MP Kosta Stoyanov, the Black Sea Basin Directorate inspected the area and found two unauthorized water extraction wells. One is fully operational and feeding the complex through underground pipes. The other is still under construction. Neither has any of the required permits, not from the Basin Directorate for water extraction, nor from the municipality under the Spatial Development Act. Yavor Dimitrov, director of the Basin Directorate, told BNT that the entire water network is buried underground, making it difficult to trace, but inspectors have found collector pipes and meters in residential buildings nearby.
Residents told inspectors they were paying for water either to property owners or to whoever built the wells, but they could not produce documentation of any kind. Professor Petar Kalinkov of the Bulgarian Water Association called the entire setup “absolutely inadmissible,” warning that groundwater along the Black Sea coast is almost certainly contaminated with bacteria and should never be used for drinking without testing and treatment, neither of which appears to have happened here. The Basin Directorate has ordered the wells sealed and notified the prosecutor’s office and the energy and water regulator. More wells may yet be found.
The Buyers Had No Real Contracts
Lawyers Mihail Tomov and Dragomir Raychev, speaking to BNR, revealed a detail that changes how the buyer story looks. Many of those who paid for properties at Forest Club signed only a “reservation agreement” that laid out a payment schedule. No preliminary purchase contract. No construction permits shown. No proof of legal status for the buildings. Some had already paid half of the agreed price, with prices reaching 3,000 euros per square meter.
“At the absence of such documents, any lawyer would have to warn his client that this is a risky investment,” Raychev said. Some of the properties also have liens against them, which complicates any future recovery of paid funds even through the courts. Communication with KYB Corporation, the lawyers added, has become difficult.
This is awkward for the narrative KYB has been pushing. The company has positioned itself publicly as standing behind families with mortgages, notarial deeds, and “long-term life plans.” A petition signed by hundreds of residents demanding a halt to demolition has been backed by KYB and circulated widely. But the lawyers describe a different reality, in which most “buyers” never received the documents that would actually establish them as buyers in any legal sense.
Over 90 Property Acts Issued in March Alone
A “SEGA” investigation into the property registry produced perhaps the most damning timeline yet. Over 90 ownership acts were registered by Forest Club Varna at the Varna registry office on a single day, March 9, 2026. Each of these required tax assessments from Varna Municipality and cadastral sketches, meaning the municipality and the cadastre absolutely knew what was happening. One notarial act reviewed by the publication explicitly states that the apartment being purchased is in a two-story building constructed on land designated as forest territory. The municipality issued the tax assessment anyway.
Regional Development Minister Ivan Shishkov, speaking to journalists in parliament, directly blamed the previous GERB and PP-DB “assembly-coalition” government. “The coalition assembled the illegal city,” he said, using a play on the Bulgarian word “sglobka” that has stuck to the 2023-2024 GERB plus PP-DB plus (in some cases) DPS arrangement. Shishkov argued that responsibility crosses both administrations: construction began under GERB mayor Ivan Portnih in 2023, continued under PP-DB mayor Blagomir Kotsev after the local elections, and was enabled at the national level by the same political constellation. Neither Portnih nor Kotsev accepts responsibility.Bulgarian economic analysis
The Ambassador Question, Confirmed in Part
Interior Minister Demerdzhiev told parliament that Ukrainian Ambassador Olesya Ilashchuk did intervene in the Nevzorov case, with documented diplomatic correspondence between the issuance of the SANS expulsion order and its reversal. The Foreign Ministry confirmed to BTA that there was correspondence regarding Nevzorov in 2025 which was forwarded to SANS (State Agency “National Security”) for competence. The ministry did not disclose the content, citing diplomatic confidentiality. SANS subsequently reversed its own order. This is the closest thing yet to official confirmation that the ambassador’s role was more than rumor.
The Fence Comes Down
Hours before the deadline issued by the Regional Forestry Directorate expired, the perimeter fence around what former mayor Portnih has nicknamed “Baba Alino 2,” a second luxury complex KYB is building on adjacent land, was removed. The vinyl sheets concealing the construction site were taken down, revealing buildings already at an advanced stage. Agriculture Minister Plamen Abrovski, visiting the site, noted that of the nine fenced properties, four are recorded as state-owned in forestry plans but appear in the cadastre as private. Nobody at the regional forestry office or Varna Forestry can explain how that happened, or who sold them, or when.
Source: https://www.novinite.com/
