Codename: “Bogpr.” The mysterious character who dumped millions of dollars on TikTok
2024-12-08 19:11:44
TiranaPost
Codename Bogpr. For months, he appeared on TikTok with his face covered. But efforts to keep his identity secret sank two weeks ago, when the newspaper Gandul identified him as Bogdan Peschir: it was November 25, the day after the first round of the Romanian presidential elections, which were annulled by the Constitutional Court – also because of him: this thirty-five-year-old, a former programmer in cryptocurrency-related companies, is the main suspect in the illegal financing of the social media campaign of the sovereigntist Calin Georgescu, the man behind the exploitation of this candidate, who in a short time from a semi-unknown politician turned into a surprising winner of the first round.
According to intelligence documents declassified last week, Peschir used his account to make “donations” worth over a million euros to influencers contacted by a South African online marketing company. Each of them was paid a thousand euros to publish a video that was supposed to touch on topics dear to Georgescu’s electoral campaign.
The Chinese social network confirmed to intelligence the role that Peschir had in financing Georgescut's promotion: he spoke of payments worth $381,000 in the month before the vote alone, even after the end of the campaign.
“These are violations of TikTok policies and Romanian electoral legislation,” the services explained. In the end, Peschiri also had to admit that he had given money to pro-Georgescu accounts, but denied making direct payments to them. “I did not finance a campaign, I donated to various types of TikTok accounts without asking them for favors or without conditioning these donations on their political orientation,” he defended himself.
He recently compared himself to Elon Musk (and Georgescu defined himself as the “Romanian Trump”): “I am an entrepreneur and an investor. I do not know Georgescu personally. My support for him is completely voluntary. I do not think I am doing anything immoral to support a campaign that I believe in. Elon Musk also supported Trump in the US with more than $100 million.” It is a pity that in the case of the Tesla owner these are transparent donations.
Above all, Peschir is unable to explain what drives such generosity: where the money comes from, in short.
An intelligence document mentions that the young man has a five-star standard of living (he has a BMW and a Porsche Cayenne in his garage, but always travels by taxi) “which does not correspond to the activities carried out through the company he owns.” This is Digital On-Ramp Solutions Srl, created in 2021. “I wanted to do a digitalization project for Romania, but they don’t want to do anything useful here because of the corrupt system,” he says.
Now the noose around him is tightening: yesterday hooded special agents and police forces inspected his villa in Brasov, the "vampire city" in Transylvania, as well as his residence and the headquarters of his ghost company.
When suspected of being an intermediary with Moscow, he replies that his only connection to Russia is literature. "My favorite author is Dostoevsky and my name in Russian means gift from God." Only he knows who this gift is for.
Originally published on bota.al
