Illustrative Image: Cork board. (Image: Freepik) | Interpol logo. (Image: Wikicommons) | Stanislav Stamenov. (Photo: Supplied) | (By Daniella Lee Ming Yesca) 
Virgin Active has suspended contracted Cape Town personal trainer Stan Stamenov, who was working at its gym in the upmarket suburb of Constantia. Stamenov’s name also came up when Krasimir Kamenov, also originally from Bulgaria, was among four people from that country killed in May 2023 in Constantia. Stamenov was said to have been a bodyguard for Kamenov.
He was suspended after Daily Maverick submitted questions to Virgin Active after establishing that he was likely the same individual flagged by an international police organisation as wanted in Romania for drug trafficking.
Stamenov is listed on an online platform that Virgin Active uses to advertise personal trainers working at its Constantia branch. His framed photograph with his details is also on a wall inside the gym, along with those of several other personal trainers.
/file/attachments/orphans/A-wall-in-the-Virgin-Active-gym-in-Constantia-showing-various-personal-trainers_322651.jpg "A wall in the Virgin Active gym in Constantia displaying personal trainers. (Image: Supplied)")
Daily Maverick was alerted to this last week and has since confirmed it.
At the same time, another photograph, under the name Stanislav Sevdanilov Stamenov, appears in the “wanted” section of an international policing website.
Aside from similarities between the Virgin Active photograph of Stamenov and the one on the international policing website, there is other evidence suggesting the personal trainer is indeed the wanted individual.
Personal trainer in Constantia
According to the details accompanying his photograph at Virgin Active in Constantia, Stamenov is a “senior personal trainer” who obtained his qualification from what Daily Maverick has established is a South African fitness academy.
The same photograph of Stamenov is on the online platform showcasing Virgin Active personal trainers.
This platform says that Stamenov is “specialised in” bodybuilding, boxing, functional training, martial arts and weight loss.
On Monday, 26 January 2026, after Daily Maverick submitted questions to Virgin Active about Stamenov, a response said in part: “We can confirm that the individual referenced is a contracted personal trainer operating from our Constantia club.
“Personal trainers at Virgin Active are independent contractors, not employees, who lease space within our facilities to operate their own businesses.
“They are required to enter into a formal contractual agreement with Virgin Active and comply with all onboarding, legal and documentation requirements as outlined in our internal policies.”
The company was assessing whether Stamenov was indeed the individual wanted in another country in connection with criminal matters.
A few years ago, Daily Maverick asked the South African Police Service (SAPS) about Stamenov, and they had been aware of Bulgarian individuals in this country who were wanted elsewhere.
Daily Maverick was unable to obtain an updated SAPS response by the time of publication.
/file/attachments/orphans/Stanislav-Stamenov-as-depicted-on-an-Interpol-red-notice-screegrabbed-on-23-January-2026_579206.jpg "Stanislav Stamenov as depicted on an Interpol red notice. (Image: Supplied)")
Netwerk24’s Maygene de Wee initially reported on Stamenov and his potential presence in Cape Town in 2023, saying he was apparently a bodyguard for Krasimir Kamenov.
Kamenov, also originally from Bulgaria, was among four people from that country killed in May 2023 in Constantia – the same suburb in which Stamenov offered personal training at the Virgin Active.
Daily Maverick also wrote about him the year of the Kamenov killings, saying he was wanted in Romania and that a person with a matching name may be in Cape Town.
Over the past few days Daily Maverick has established that an individual – Stanislav Sevdanilov – was the co-director of a private company that appears to relate to fitness, with a Western Cape mailing address, which was registered in September 2023.
He appears to have resigned from that position last year.
According to a search for that company, Stamenov is a South African resident, and his birth date matches that listed on a “red notice” that flags internationally wanted suspects and criminals.
‘Wanted by Romania’
This is where the international police organisation, better known as Interpol, fits in.
The name Stanislav Sevdanilov Stamenov is listed in the “red notice” section of Interpol’s website.
A red notice, according to the site, is not an international arrest warrant but “a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender or similar legal action”.
Interpol’s red notice for Stamenov says he is wanted by Romania and that this relates to “trafficking in drugs”.
Daily Maverick confirmed that the red notice was still on Interpol’s website as of Monday, 26 January 2026.
The site says: “The Notices data on this website is updated every hour.”
It therefore appears that the red notice is up to date.
Internal review and suspension
The photograph accompanying Stamenov’s notice shows a man who looks similar to the image of Stamenov on the personal trainer display wall at Constantia’s Virgin Active.
On Monday, in response to Daily Maverick’s questions about the matter, Virgin Active’s head of customer service, Jacqui Walter, said: “We have initiated our internal review process and are engaging with the appropriate authorities to verify the accuracy of the claims and determine whether there is any factual basis linking the individual to the person named on the Interpol website.
“While this review is ongoing, the personal trainer in question has been suspended with immediate effect in line with our standard procedures.”
Walter said the gym had strict measures in place with regards to personal trainers.
“Virgin Active applies due diligence processes to all personal trainers operating within our clubs, including contractual compliance and supporting documentation as required by our legal department,” she said.
“We will act in accordance with the outcome of the verification process and any guidance provided by the relevant authorities.”
‘Fugitive’ and ‘high-risk’ drugs
Daily Maverick has reported that the Romanian police’s website listed Stamenov as a fugitive.
It said he was wanted in connection with a 16-year prison sentence for narcotics-related offences and “introducing high-risk drugs into the country”.
A 2009 statement from the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism in Bucharest also referenced someone with a matching name as being involved in a drug-trafficking syndicate that consisted of two groupings.
He was accused of bringing heroin into Romania.
Daily Maverick has also reported that “according to a Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs document, a person with a name matching Stamenov’s was among a group of Bulgarians who indicated in 2015 that they wanted to vote abroad”.
The document suggested he was based in Cape Town as he was expected to use a polling station set up at a hotel in the city.
In June 2023, Daily Maverick had initially asked the SAPS about him and another suspect from Bulgaria, who could be in Cape Town.
At the time, national police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said: “The SAPS and Interpol confirms that a red notice has been issued and is currently being processed.
“Both the SAPS and Interpol wishes not to comment on an ongoing investigation as this may jeaopardise the integrity of the investigation that has reached an advanced and sensitive stage.”
Constantia killings
Daily Maverick’s previous article naming Stamenov was published a month after Kamenov was killed along with his wife Gergana, and two of their employees in May 2023.
The employees were Slava Sergieva and Dean Evgeniev (although several media reports have named him as Dean Genov), who was Kamenov’s bodyguard at the time.
All four were from Bulgaria and shot in the Kamenov’s Constantia home.
At the time of his killing, Kamenov, like Stamenov, was the subject of an Interpol red notice.
Read more: Constantia killings – Bulgaria’s forewarning to SA and a global billion-dollar crypto scam
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Caryn-Prigozhin-toxic-web-2.jpg "Krasimir Kamenov was one of four people murdered in Constantia, Cape Town, on 25 May 2023. He was wanted by Bulgarian authorities. (Photo: Interpol website. Image sharpened by AI)")
In Kamenov’s case, he was wanted for murder in the country he was born in – Bulgaria.
His killing underscored how organised crime involving Bulgaria is tied to South Africa, with previous suspicions in this arena being that some Bulgarian figures were involved in money laundering and drug trafficking in this country.
Around the time of the Kamenov killings, suspicions did the rounds that some suspects from Bulgaria, wanted in other countries, were based in Cape Town.
Stamenov’s probable presence in the city now adds weight to those suspicions.
Other Bulgarian murders
Besides the Stamenov saga there have been other criminal matters linking South Africa to Bulgaria.
And some of those again loop back to Kamenov.
He was connected to Angelo Dimov, who, with his wife Nezabravka Peeva, was murdered in February 2018 in a home they were renting in Bergvliet, about 5km from Constantia.
Dimov and Peeva were from Bulgaria.
Read more: Constantia killings — the Kamenov jewel collection and web of companies connected via murders
At the time of the Dimov and Peeva murders, Dimov had been facing criminal charges relating to a credit card scam in a case that dated back to 2008.
There were also suspicions in police circles that he was involved in the illicit drugs and diamond trade.
The cryptoqueen and South Africa
As for Kamenov, he may have had information about Bulgaria’s Ruja Ignatova, who is now also known as the “cryptoqueen”.
She is wanted by the US in connection with a global billion-dollar crypto fraud scheme known as OneCoin.
Authorities had been unable to trace Ignatova since October 2017.
Read more: German cops confirm clues that wanted global ‘cryptoqueen’ Ruja Ignatova may be in South Africa
Though some reports suggested she was murdered in 2018, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation lists her among its top 10 wanted suspects, suggesting she could still be alive.
In about 2018, her younger brother, Konstantin Ignatov, who succeeded her as the head of OneCoin, posted several photographs on his Instagram account that showed he had visited Cape Town.
In 2024, Daily Maverick reported that the police in Germany were looking into clues that Ignatova herself may be in South Africa. DM