Irena Krasteva

Bulgaria's winning party in the July elections, the political newcomer "There is Such a Nation", received a mandate to form a government from President Rumen Radev on Friday and proposed businessman Plamen Nikolov for its choice of Prime Minister.

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.

The Bulgarian Finance Ministry on Tuesday published a longlist of the persons who fall, or could potentially fall, within the scope of sanctions imposed by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) with the US Department of the Treasury.

The competition watchdog of Bulgaria has given the green light for a Dubai-registered offshore company to acquire consumer electronics retailer Technomarket.

TGI Middle East FZE is also the entity which several months ago bought a stake in Bulgarian tobacco holding Bulgartabac, purchasing shares from controversial MP Delyan Peevski and Italian businessman Edoardo Miroglio.

Like nobody else in Bulgaria MP Delyan Peevski "embodies the oligarchic system of clientelism," Der Spiegel says in a recent article.

Peevski is "the most flamboyant" Bulgarian politician, with supporters calling him "a child prodigy" and critics tying his success to close relations with the "political mafia," Der Spiegel writes [DE].

An international press freedom organization has sought to raise Bulgarian PM Boyko Borisov's awareness of instances of harassment of journalists working with an independent investigative website.

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.

Bulgaria has now an opportunity to call to account those responsible for the developments at Corpbank, with "prosecutions and jail sentences where appropriate", an article on Forbes magazine's website reads.