Sofia Court Relaunches Money Laundering Case against Alleged Drug Lord Evelin Banev

Bulgarian national Evelin Banev, nicknamed Brendo, appeared at the Sofia Appellate Court on Monday for the restart of the money laundering case against him and three other people.

The four defendants face charges of participating in a crime ring which engaged in the laundering of over BGN 20 M of drug-trade proceeds.

In end-May 2015, Bulgaria's Supreme Court of Cassation (VKS) returned the case for retrial over substantial procedural irregularities.

Banev was given a jail term of seven years and a half by the court of first instance, the Sofia City Court, while the three other defendants, including his former wife, Monika Dobrinova, Dobrinova's sister, Desislava Dishlieva, and the stepbrother of Banev, Simo Kraychev, were issued a 3.5-year suspended sentence each, according to reports of dnevnik.bg.

The court of second instance, the Sofia Appellate Court, acquitted all of the defendants in the case.

The next hearing at the Sofia Appellate Court is to be held on November 18.

On September 24 it emerged that the lawsuit against Banev and several other defendants over drug trafficking had been returned for retrial by Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation.

Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation annulled the 20-year prison term of Banev and returned the case for retrial to the Appellate Court of Milan.