Founded 1993 | Headquarters Varna, Bulgaria | |
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Founders Ivo Kamenov, Marin Mitev, Tihomir Mitev | ||
TIM is a holding company in Varna, Bulgaria, which according to a U.S. State Department cable leaked to the media by WikiLeaks, was engaged in organized criminal activities. Jan Puhl describes in an article for Der Spiegel, that TIM started out as a private security firm in 1990s, the start capital of which was partially acquired through smuggling, prostitution, gambling, car theft and drug trafficking. Later TIM invested its money in various legal ventures and grew into a holding company employing over 30,000 people, making it the largest and most influential employer in Varna. Spas Spasow a reporter of the Bulgarian magazine Kapital claims, that some of the holding's construction activities in Varna are based on corruption.
According to Zlatimir Zhechev, a lawyer and board member of Varna Holding, one of the group’s holding companies, "There is not one fact which shows any indication of any criminal activity." The company is controlled by veterans of an elite communist era military unit.