Pursuant to the constitutional prerogative of the Prosecutor's Office for safeguarding legality in the protection of the state and public interest, the Supreme Administrative Prosecutor's Office (SAPО) carries out an inspection on a signal related to the issuance of the so-called "golden passports".
A file was initiated in SAPO on a signal submitted by an MP, alleging violations of the requirements of the Bulgarian Citizenship Act, the Foreigners Act in the Republic of Bulgaria and the Investment Promotion Act, respectively regulations on their implementation.
According to the sender of the signal, the procedures were applied mainly to citizens of the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China in order to acquire Bulgarian citizenship by naturalization.
Pursuant to Article 145, paragraph 1, item 1 of the JSA, SAPО requested information on this case from the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Economy, the InvestBulgaria Agency (IBA) and the State Agency for National Security (SANS).
The Ministry of Justice should provide information on each of the cases for the period 2015-2021 in which a decree was issued by the President of the Republic of Bulgaria for the acquisition of Bulgarian citizenship by naturalization under the terms of Article 14a, paragraph 1 of the Bulgarian Citizenship Act and on the submitted applications in which the procedure has not been completed, as well as what actions have been taken for the lawful conduct of the procedures.
IBA should send SAPО a report stating whether the relevant investment has been made in connection with submitted applications for acquisition of Bulgarian citizenship by naturalization in the period 2015-2021, on what documents it is based, whether there is evidence of real investments, as well as whether an annual inspection was carried out for them throughout the period until the acquisition of citizenship.
IBA should also answer which persons, requested acquisition of Bulgarian citizenship in this order sent information for maintaining the investment and which not, as well as whether all documents for investments were legalized. Were inspections carried out weather persons who acquired citizenship based on a certificate received under the Investment Promotion Act maintain the investments made in the period required by law.
SANS should provide information to SAPO, to show whether control has been exercised in connection with the maintenance of investments and other requirements of the relevant regulations in respect of each of the cases of applications for Bulgarian citizenship under Article 14a of BCA for the period 2015-2021.
The Ministry of Economy should answer to SAPO whether subsequent control has been exercised for each case of acquisition of Bulgarian citizenship by naturalization in the specified period.
In case of data for violations, SAPO will send a proposal to the competent authorities to eliminate the irregularities. When establishing data on committed crimes - the competent structure of the Prosecutor's Office will be referred to.