Bulgaria Blacklists Companies, Individuals After US Graft Sanctions

Vassil Bojkov, oligarch in exile and head of the Bulgarian Summer party. Source: Facebook/VassilKrumovBojkov.

The Finance Ministry said the companies and individuals might be affected in the near future by the US's Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which freezes the assets of people linked to corruption and human rights abuses and bars them from entering the US.

"These people are related to those who have been sanctioned and as such, there is a great risk in working with them. They do not have the right to apply for public procurements and state-owned enterprises must refrain from working with them," caretaker Finance Minister Asen Vassilev told media.

The US Treasury sanctioned three prominent Bulgarians this month, including Delyan Peevski, a media mogul and former MP from the Movement for Rights and Freedoms party, and Vassil Bojkov, an oligarch-in-exile, art dealer and former football and gambling boss, currently a candidate for parliament through his party Bulgarian Summer, despite the fact that he is facing numerous charges.

Both men have denied any role in corruption.

The Finance Ministry blacklist include people and businesses who have collaborated with Peevski and Bojkov from 2016 onwards, like brothers Tzvetomir and Boyan Naydenov, former business partners of Bojkov and founders of the Efbet betting company, the current main sponsor of the Bulgarian football league and Bulgarian national team.

Irena Krasteva, the mother of Delyan Peevski and partner in his Nova Media Group, is also on the list, as well as Boris Bekyarov, a partner of Bojkov, who was arrested in Vienna in February 2020on charges of being part of a criminal group connected to Bojkov.

The companies are involved in media,...