Bugattis in the garage, Roma slaves in the streets: The empire of Rumen Gaytanski "The Wolf"

or why the Romani resort to wrapping themselves in plastic bags while their boss collects luxury cars

Rumen Gaytanski escorted by police in court | Picture from August 2024 | Source

“The wolf has to eat,” is a common saying at Pepi’s job, at least among the Roma street cleaners. It means, put very simply, that money never flows down to the workers. Instead, it stays with the owner, Rumen Gaytanski.

Garbage disposal and street cleaning of our city Sofia (the capital of Bulgaria) used to be monopolized by Gaytanski in the 1990s into the early 2000s. Every article about him says his nickname is “The Wolf” because one of his two companies was named “Wolf 96.” But the nickname is more than earned.

“He used to be very cruel then,” Pepi said. Martina wondered how much crueler he could have been compared to now. “I didn’t work for him then. But some coworkers still talk about how awful he was. He has mellowed down now.”

In 2005-2007, Boyko Borisov - who would later become the longest-reigning prime minister of our country until he was pushed out by anti-corruption protests - used the Wolf as on…