Bulgarian Citizenship Scam Profited from Fraudulent Applicants

The State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad, SABA, issued around 40 certificates a week over the past year falsely identifying foreign citizens as having Bulgarian heritage, the country's Specialised Prosecution said on Wednesday.

Prospective candidates were charged 5,000 to 8,000 euros for the heritage certificates, which are the first necessary document on the path to gaining Bulgarian citizenship, said Ivan Geshev, the head of the Specialised Prosecution, which focuses on high-profile corruption cases.

The corrupt scheme was implemented with the knowledge and support of its SABA's president, Petar Haralampiev, Geshev told a press conference.

The fake documents were given mostly to Moldovan and Ukrainian applicants for citizenship. 

Geshev told reporters that Haralampiev, who has been SABA's president for over a year, is suspected of leading the scam, although it might have been ongoing before his tenure.

He said that of the 20 people taken into custody on Monday, five have been indicted - Haralampiev, SABA's secretary, and three others, which he described only as a "Serbian and a Bulgarian middlemen" and a "lady". The others detained on Monday are witnesses.

On Tuesday, Defence Minister Krassimir Karakachanov, who leads the VMRO party, said he will "shoot himself" if it turns out that his party, which has long been linked with SABA, benefited from the corruption scheme.

The Bulgarian Socialist Party called for a thorough investigation of the corruption allegations, while the Business Party and the Movement of Rights and Freedoms called for the resignations of Karkachanov and Valeri Simeonov, who are both deputy prime ministers from the United Patriots bloc.

But United Patriots bloc MPs defended them, with Volen Siderov...