Stanimir Vaglenov is the online projects manager at Media Group Bulgaria.

He manages more than 50 online media channels, including websites, social channels and more. Vangelov’s investigations have covered Osama Bin Laden’s network in the Balkans, money laundering, organised crime, the theft of European funds, the baby trade and arms dealer Viktor Bout. He was also part of several ICIJ projects including Offshore Leaks and Big Tobacco Smuggling. In 2007 he founded the Bulgarian Investigative Journalism Centre in Sofia. He has won numerous journalism prizes, including the Daniel Pearl Award and a Global Shining Light Award as part of the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. Vangelov published a book, Свалят правителството! (Overthrow the government!) – a collection of his work – and teaches investigative journalism at Sofia University “St Kliment Ohridski”.

Stanimir Vaglenov

Basic information

Name
Stanimir Vaglenov
Title
Journalist
Country
Bulgaria
City
Sofia

Supported projects

Children Wrongly Placed in Adoption System

  • Social affairs
  • Youth
  • Human Rights

AMSTERDAM/BRUSSELS/SOFIA - Adoption is often linked to poor countries in the global South. Yet Flanders and the Netherlands adopt children from other European countries, such as Bulgaria and Hungary. This cross-border research shows that Roma children in these countries face discrimination and fall into the adoption system due to stigma, poverty and lack of support for families. 

Where The EU Washes Its Dirty Linen

  • Industry
  • Trafficking

MILAN/SOFIA/ARAD – Tens of thousands of tonnes of textile waste arrive in Romania and Bulgaria every year, mainly from Italy and Germany. Despite the fact the EU had acknowledged the extent of the textile waste smuggling across the continent, no strategy so far proved to be efficient in preventing it.

The Slaves of Champagne

  • Exploitation
  • Human Rights
  • Migration
  • Trafficking

EPERNAY / COLOMBO - Champagne has been a symbol of luxury for decades. Over the last few years, the shiny image of the sparkling wine from Eastern France suffered quite a bit. Several affairs of human trafficking have been battering the famous French industry. 

Italian Connection: How Convicted White-collar Romanians Escape Jail Time

  • Corruption
  • Tax evasion

BUCHAREST - Dozens of people definitively convicted in Romania live today in Italy.

Inquam Photos/Octav Ganea

Romania and Bulgaria, safe havens for Italian mafia money

  • Corruption
  • Finance

BUCHAREST - The need of Italian mafia networks to carry out vast money-laundering operations took them to Romania and Bulgaria. They set up companies that not only succeeded in flying under the radar but also won government contracts. 

The slavery of care: Bulgarian women working in the West as caregivers

  • Healthcare
  • Organised crime
  • Work

SOFIA - The story focuses on the plight of cash-strapped Bulgarian women who come to Belgium and the Netherlands as posted workers to care for elderly people who want to spend the last months or years of their life in their own home, instead of in a retirement home. The investigation focuses on one of the main players on the market offering such services, Seniorcare24.

Insane Prices

  • Healthcare
  • Science

RIGA - There are important disparities in the price of cancer medicines within the 28 EU member States. New cancer drugs are incredibly expensive for patients in some Eastern member states or simply not available because of shortages.

Roma exploitation: end of the dream

  • Migration

KATUNITSA - Some 10 to 12 million Roma are estimated to travel around Europe. The political dimension of this ethnical and social challenge is an ongoing discussion in the EU, but what is never told is the dark economy of Roma migration. Who benefits from the large afflux of mainly poor people into western Europe?

Money Laundering in Estonia

  • Corruption
  • Economy
  • Politics

TALLINN - According to experts, Estonian financial institutions are popular among criminals for laundering money because Estonia offers cheaper currency transactions than Russia and less regulation than in the EU. Its convenient location for such transactions adds to the appeal.