Bulgaria: Prosecution Office Opens Six Cases in US Magnitsky Sanctions Followup

Acting on its own initiative, Bulgaria's prosecution service has instituted six case files after the US Treasury Department and State Department announced on Wednesday that they are sanctioning a total of six Bulgarians over their involvement in significant corruption. 

The Prosecutor General's Spokesperson Siyka Mileva said on Friday that one of the designees: gambling mogul and fugitive from justice Vassil Bojkov, who is under investigation by the Specialized Prosecution Office in connection with offences other  than the 18 charges already brought against him, will nevertheless be checked, too. 

Mileva recalled that another three of the blacklisted persons:

former deputy economy minister Alexander Manolev, former State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad (SABA) Chair Petar Haralampiev and former SABA Chief Secretary Krasimir Tomov, have already been
indicted for corruption offences, and the court has proceeded with their cases. 

The facts cited in the US statements about all six designees (Bojkov, Peevski, Manolev, Haralampiev, Tomov and National Bureau for Control on Special Intelligence-Gathering Devices Deputy Chair Ilko Zhelyazkov) will be fully checked.

To this end, the prosecution service will approach the US authorities for further information.   

She assumed that a large part of the findings in the US statements are based on materials gathered by the prosecution service, but specified that only the court is competent to find somebody guilty.