Atanas Tchobanov is co-founder of the Bulgarian investigative website Bivol.bg, exposing the State-Mafia nexus in Bulgaria.

Bivol publications triggered most of the major corruption scandals in Bulgaria in the last 6 years.

Tchobanov has contributed to many cross-border investigation cases concerning hidden assets in Bulgaria by foreign officials and abuse of EU money.

He holds a PhD in computational linguistics from Paris Nanterre University and works as a senior research engineer in CNRS. In his journalistic activity he is also interested in big data harvesting and exploring, forensic methods, and encryption techniques for protecting the communications and the journalistic sources.

Tchobanov is a co-recipient of the Serbian National Award for Investigative Reporting for 2016 and 2017. In 2016 he was elected member of the Board of the investigative reporting network OCCRP. 

Basic information

Name
Atanas Tchobanov
Country
Bulgaria
City
Sofia
Website
Bivol.bg
Links

Supported projects

The Black Sea in Peril: The Echoes of War Ripple Beyond Borders

  • Armed conflict
  • Environment
  • Politics

NOVA KAKHOVKA – In June 2023 the Russian military targeted Ukraine's Nova Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant, triggering an ecocide that strained the ecological resilience of the region. The polluted water added to the Black Sea's ongoing environmental degradation because of negligence and weak policies in the region.

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Black sea war damage

Money Trail newspaper supplement

  • Corruption
  • Finance
  • Tax evasion

AMSTERDAM, BRUSSELS - In February 2021 a Dutch and a Belgian newspaper included a 16 page supplement about the Money Trail project.

The booklet featured four full Money Trail stories, plus a 'Stories behind the Stories' section, which revealed how the journalists went about to do their research and get their stories published.

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The MEPs Project: the ghost offices of MEPs

  • Data Journalism

In an unprecedented EU-wide collaborative effort, the journalists from "The MEPs Project" located in every member state investigated how members of the European Parliament (MEPs) make use of the general expenses payments they receive every month. 

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