On the occasion of the statements made by political figures and representatives of institutions in connection with the sanctions imposed by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Treasury Department against five Bulgarian citizens — former officials, the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Bulgaria (PORB) is obliged to remind that the fight against crime, in particular corruption, is the responsibility of the three branches of power (the judiciary, the executive and the legislature). Attributing this responsibility solely to the judiciary shows ignorance of the Constitution, the country's laws and European standards. The detection of crimes is the responsibility of the Ministry of the Interior and the security services, which should inform the prosecution if they find evidence of a crime. Only then can the public prosecutor's office exercise its powers under the Constitution and the law, namely to initiate pre-trial proceedings and to direct the investigation, supervising its lawful conduct and, if there is sufficient evidence, to hold criminally liable those who have committed crimes.
The Republic of Bulgaria is a sovereign state, part of the European legal area. In this context, the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Bulgaria strictly observes the fundamental European principles and Euro-Atlantic values, the most important of which are the rule of law and the government of law. According to the Bulgarian Constitution, the Prosecutor General is part of the independent judiciary with strictly regulated powers and is independent of the other authorities — legislative and executive. Any violation of these basic constitutional and European standards goes beyond the principles of a democratic state. History has shown that attempts to influence and control the judiciary only lead to repression with long-term effects, affecting the rights of Bulgarian and European citizens.
The Public Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Bulgaria declares that it has long taken all necessary action in accordance with its competence under the Constitution and the law against all sanctioned Bulgarian citizens.
Two of the sanctioned persons, R. Ovcharov and N. Malinov, have long since been indicted for crimes of corruption and espionage committed for the benefit of the Russian Federation.
Apart from this, the circumstances set out in the list for the Bulgarian citizens R. Ovcharov, Al. Nikolov and I. Genov are the subject of an investigation under pre-trial proceedings already initiated.
The allegations in the list regarding the Bulgarian citizen, Vl. Goranov, are also the subject of an investigation under pre-trial proceedings already initiated. As early as April 2022, a request for legal assistance was sent to the competent judicial authorities of the UAE with a request to conduct an interview as a witness of the person V. Bozhkov by videoconference. So far, the request has not been complied with by the UAE. It should be pointed out that all necessary actions have been carried out by the PORB, but the execution of the request for legal assistance is solely within the competence of the judicial authorities of the UAE. The same is of utmost importance for the discovery of the objective truth and for the continuation of the investigation.
Despite the fact that, under European law and the long-standing case law of the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC), the sanctions imposed by the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) are not applicable to the European Union, and despite the existence of pending pre-trial and trial proceedings for all the persons on the list, the Supreme Cassation Prosecutor's Office (SCPO) has initiated a self-investigation on 10 February 2023. Up-to-date information that could be relevant to proving corruption offences will be requested from the competent authorities — Combating Organised Crime Directorate General, National Police Directorate General, State Agency for National Security, the Commission for Anti-Corruption and Illegal Assets Forfeiture, the National Revenue Agency, the National Registry Agency, etc. A request is to be sent through the Ministry of Justice to the relevant institutions in the United States to provide the information on the basis of which sanctions have been imposed on the persons.
Numerous press releases have been issued in connection with the official announcement on 02 June 2021 of sanctions imposed on Bulgarian citizens and related companies by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Treasury Department and the US Department of State and the actions taken by the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Bulgaria. However, we recall that with respect to the individuals Al. Manolev, P. Haralampiev, Kr. Tomov and V. Bozhkov, the pre-trial and court proceedings are ongoing.
With regard to Al. Manolev, two criminal proceedings are being conducted for crimes under Art. 248a of the Criminal Code and Art. 255, par. 1, item 2 and item 6 in conjunction with Art. 1 of the Criminal Code. An indictment has been filed in respect of the former and is pending before the court. On the other, the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office is investigating concealed and evaded tax liabilities by Al. Manolev and related persons and commercial companies. In order to establish the circumstances of the case, four tax audits have been assigned by prosecutor's order to the individual Al. Manolev, his related individuals and legal entities. The materials from the audits have been received and are included in the pre-trial proceedings. Two forensic accounting and economic experts have been appointed and have provided an analysis of cash flow and possible tax liabilities. Material received from the United States is attached.
Р. Haralampiev and K. Tomov have been held criminally liable for offences committed by them in their capacity as officials in a position of responsibility in the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad (SABA) in two pre-trial proceedings. Only in September 2020, one of them was filed with an indictment in Sofia City Court against Haralampiev, Tomov and other persons.
For V. Bozhkov, it should be recalled that he was brought as a defendant for 19 crimes committed by him. More than 200 witnesses have been questioned in the pre-trial proceedings, financial inspections have been commissioned to the State Financial Inspection Agency, which have established damages to the budget in the amount of BGN 556,872,283.00. The supervising prosecutors have ordered tax audits, some of which are still pending. The materials from the tax audits have been separated into 47 prosecutor's files, on which 27 pre-trial proceedings for tax offences and money laundering have been initiated after checks. A total of 18 European Investigation Orders and requests for legal assistance were sent to the USA, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Austria, Greece, Romania, Cyprus, France, Luxembourg, Poland, Malta, Hungary, China, Albania, Moldova, Mongolia, Georgia, only some of which were executed. On the request for extradition of the accused V. Bozhkov has not received any response from the competent authorities in the UAE.
Apart from this, the Prosecutor's Office has prepared and sent a total of 4 new requests for legal assistance, on which the UAE authorities have been requested to serve the accused V. Bozhkov for his voluntary appearance before the Bulgarian investigative authorities, the last of which was sent on 18 January 2023. By these additional requests for legal aid, the defendant Bozhkov was given the opportunity to appear voluntarily before the Bulgarian investigative authorities and to make full use of all his rights under Bulgarian law, including to give explanations in the case. The defendant Bozhkov has been given 34 dates to appear before the pre-trial authorities in the Republic of Bulgaria. The execution of the application for legal aid by the UAE authorities is based solely on the principle of ‘reciprocity’, as Bulgaria does not have a legal assistance treaty with the UAE. The principle of reciprocity means that the UAE has to decide whether it will accept a request for legal aid on the basis of this principle. Materials concerning money laundering, illegal possession and trafficking of movable cultural property were separated from the pre-trial proceedings.
Inspections have been carried out on the persons D. Peevski and Il. Zhelyazkov, in the course of which all available information has been requested from the Combating Organised Crime Directorate General, National Police Directorate General, State Agency for National Security, the Commission for Anti-Corruption and Illegal Assets Forfeiture, the National Revenue Agency and other state bodies. The information received by the Prosecutor's Office did not contain any evidence of any criminal offences. Tax audits have also been carried out in respect of the persons, which have not established any tax offences, respectively liabilities and inconsistencies in the declared data. In the absence of any evidence from which a reasonable assumption of a criminal offence could be made, pre-trial proceedings were dismissed on the basis of Article 24(1)(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The Public Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Bulgaria expresses its confidence and readiness to act jointly with all state institutions in accordance with their competence to actively detect and prosecute corruption in high places of power, as well as to prevent malicious Russian influence.
The Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Bulgaria fully shares and agrees with the views expressed by US officials and European institutions on the need to implement urgent reforms in the area of the rule of law. As before, the Prosecutor's Office expresses its readiness to assist with all its expertise and professional potential to bring the legislation of the Republic of Bulgaria up to date, which will support our common actions with our Euro-Atlantic partners to counter corruption, strengthen security and promote the rule of law.