FLORAL tributes bedecked Sofia's Saint Nedelya church at the funeral service for Emil Kyulev, laid there by the hands of the many members of Bulgaria's business and political elite who came to pay homage to him.

Among mourners were Deputy Prime Minister Daniel Vulchev of the National Movement Simeon II, as well as a senior representative of President Georgi Purvanov's office, Bulgarian National Bank governor Ivan Iskrov, Deputy Interior Minister Kamen Penkov, National Investigative Service director Angel Alexandrov, Tax Directorate head Nikolai Popov, National History Museum director Bozhidar Dimitrov, and well-known showman Slavi Trifonov. They rubbed shoulders with people from the inner circle of Georgi Iliev, a controversial businessman shot dead by a sniper on August 25, two months to the day before Kyulev himself fell victim to an assassin.

That there was a bomb hoax that disrupted proceedings, and that the service was conducted inside a ring of steel provided by a strong police presence, took little away from the symbolism of the moment.

Who was this man who, in death, could bring together in public so many of the varied circles of this country's rich and powerful?

In the five years preceding his murder, Kyulev established himself as a respectable banker, owner of Bulgaria's biggest financial group, DZI, which operates with capital of about $500 million. In 2003, he was named Mr Economy 2002, and this year, Polish magazine Wprost ranked him as the second richest person in Bulgaria.

In some ways, Kyulev's career was emblematic of the extraordinary transitions that followed the fall of Todor Zhivkov's communist regime in Bulgaria in 1989.

The beginnings

Kyulev was born in Sofia in 1957. He graduated from the Police Academy, where he was regarded as an excellent student, and studied with some of the future top officials in the Interior Ministry.

In the late 1980s he joined the force as criminal investigator. At the time, his father, Alexander Kyulev, headed the murder investigation department at the Sofia Criminal Police Service, where he was highly respected as a good professional.

Kyulev graduated in International Economic Relations from the University of the National and World Economy. Among his achievements was the place that he won in Bulgaria's national swimming team.

In 1988, a year before the changes in Bulgaria, Kyulev - together with his brother Juri  -  established one of the first private companies in the country, known as Kontrakt Kyulev. The company provided law and real estate services.

Later on, Kontrakt served as an umbrella for several companies owned by Kyulev. Viewed in today's light, many of the partners involved in these companies may be regarded as controversial.

In one company, Furlan Bulgaria, his partner was Russian-born Israeli citizen Michael Chorny, who in 1998 was served a 10-year ban from entering Bulgaria on the grounds of national security. This association with Chorny later led to speculation that alleged that Kyulev had links to the Russian underworld. Chorny has consistently denied any links to organised crime.

In Kontrakt Real Estates, Kyulev's partner was Diliyan Doron, who was prosecuted for bank fraud in 1994 and again in 2003.

The banker

The year 1989 saw a rapid rise in Kyulev's business activities.

For some time, Kyulev was publisher of the Plovdiv newspapers Currier 5, Maritsa and Struma. The same year, he set up his first bank, Touristbank, that later changed its name to Touristportbank, and finally was renamed Commercial and Savings Bank. It was this bank that launched his career as a banker.

Until 1994, Kyulev was president of the bank, but he left office just before the bank went insolvent, his departure enabling Kyulev to evade accepting culpability and possible prosecution. The same year, Kyulev bought the struggling Trakiabank, that in 1998 took the name Roseximbank using capital sourced from Chorny.

According to Kyulev, the main goal of the bank was to improve business connections between Bulgaria and Russia, and restore the position that Bulgaria had relinquished on the vast Russian market. Later on, when Chorny's reputation was called into question, Kyulev announced that he was now in partnership with United States associates. Kyulev was also founder and the main shareholder of BRIbank.

When financial crisis hit Bulgaria in 1997 under the government headed by the Bulgarian Socialist Party's Zhan Videnov, Kyulev declared himself to be a nationalist, proclaiming that Bulgarian business should join forces against foreign competition. He opposed the involvement of the International Monetary Fund, defining it as Bulgaria's biggest problem.

The man with millions

In 2002, Kyulev made the most important business move of his career, buying the former monopoly state insurance company DZI for 21.5 million euro. Together with Roseximbank, he formed the biggest financial alliance in the country, with capital close to 200 million leva. Later, Roseximbank changed its name to DZI Bank, and the alliance took the name Bulgarian Financial Group DZI.(BFG DZI), which became the leader in Bulgaria's insurance market. These moves led to Kyulev being named in 2003 as Mr. Economy 2002, and as Banker of the Year.

In 2005, Bank Creditanstalt bought 25 per cent of DZI Bank and 10 per cent from the insurance company.

Today, BFG DZI unites more than 350 different companies, among them the Riviera Resort near the Black Sea city of Varna.

Kyulev was one of the initiators of the Super Borovets Project, that aims to transform the Borovets ski resort into ski centre of the Balkans. The project was personally welcomed by then-prime minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg. Saxe-Coburg's family was given vast areas of the resort as part of the post-communist land restitution process.

The networker    
Kyulev rose rapidly to prominence in business associations.

He was executive director and co-chair of the Association of Commercial Banks (1993-96). For a short period in 1994, he was leader of the Industrial Confederation, also known as the G-13, that fell apart the same year. In 2001, Kyulev was one of the founders of the Vazrazhdane Business Club. This club was the subject of controversy in the media because of some of its members. One was Ilia Pavlov, the president of Multigroup, who was shot dead in 2003.

Several Bulgarian-language media reports linked Pavlov to Bulgaria's underworld, and resources sourced from networks of the former communist regime.  Pavlov was ranked as the richest Bulgarian by Wprost magazine in 2003. Another member of the Vazrazhdane club, and currently its leader, is the owner of NOVE Holding, Vassil Bozhkov, now ranked as Bulgaria's richest man after Pavlov's murder. Vazrazhdane's founders said that its goal was for business to "establish an official contact with the country's leadership". The businessmen succeeded in meeting with Saxe-Coburg in 2001 after he became Prime Minister. Kyulev was a member of the government's Council for Economic Growth  (March 2002-February 2003). Another step in his remarkable public career was his position, from 2002 to 2003, as financial adviser to President Georgi Purvanov.

Following the trend of other Bulgarian business people in getting involved in top positions in sports bodies, in 1993 Kyulev became chairperson of the Bulgarian Swimming Federation. Other posts included his election as a member of the bodies of First Bulgarian Stock Exchange, Sofia Stock Exchange and the Bulgarian Sport Foundation.    

  
Reportedly, Kyulev was refused visas for the US and the United Kingdom.

It appears that the fact that American capital entered DZI bank, and that in 2005, Kyulev created together with US organisation BGR, the "Foundation for Fighting against People Trafficking" did not help him - although Kyulev was never accused officially of any kind of criminal activity.

Considering his career, it is little wonder that some suggested that Kyulev may have had connections with controversial sources of money. Police have a great deal to consider in investigating his death. And, in the end, all may consider that Kyulev was one of the symbols of Bulgaria's transition to democracy, as a man who gained it all.