'Bulgaria's Oligarchs Are the Politicians,' KTB Owner Vasilev Says

Developments at collapsed Corporate Commercial Bank (KTB) are tantamount to expropriation, Bulgarian businessman Tsvetan Vasilev, who was the bank's majority owner, has said in an interview with private national TV7 station.

Commenting on the collapse of KTB, which was once Bulgaria's fourth-largest lender, Vasilev criticized Prime Minister Boyko Borisov for missing the "historic opportunity" to restore KTB to health in 2014 by accepting a proposal made then by a consortium of investors. KTB was exposed to a bank run in June of last year and placed under supervision

The businessman called the developments at KTB "not privatization [but] expropriation" which allegedly helps certain people to generate wealth using any means possible.

Commenting on his one-time partnership with DPS lawmaker Delyan Peevski - the MP whose appointment to the national security agency in 2013 triggered nationwide process - he said Peevski was "after all, at a certain stage, a necessary evil for me. Because when it comes to business in Bulgaria there are circumstances one has to take into consideration."

Asked to elaborate, he admitted he had needed Peevski to secure political protection of his activities, since Peevski "to a big extent made up for certain deficiencies of the system I built."

"I've had CEOs [that proved to be] wonderful technocrats. But they were not ready, they were not public [enough] to speak to certain people," he went on.

Vasilev and Peevski, once described as "business partners" (despite Peevski being a lawmaker - most of his assests were officially "owned" by his mother Irena Krasteva), drifted apart last year, a process that culminated in mutual accusations of attempted murder in the months around the KTB crisis....