Billionaire gunned down

Sofia

Bulgaria’s richest man, Iliya Pavlov, was shot dead outside his office this week, just one day after he testified in the trial of five men accused of the murder of a former prime minister. Investigators said they believed the murder was connected to Pavlov’s business interests, not his testimony. A former wrestler who entered the business world after the fall of communism, Pavlov rose to become president of the country’s largest industrial group, MG Corp., with holdings in banking, tourism, gas, and oil. He was worth about $1.5 billion and was widely believed to be involved in corrupt deals. In the early 1990s, he had business dealings with then–prime minister Andrei Lukanov, who was assassinated in 1996.

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