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The tapes which included recordings of discrediting phone conversations between key Bulgarian political and state officials came from a probe against the Customs' Head, General Vanyo Tanov (pictured). Photo by BGNES
The tapes of conversations between Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov, his Deputy, Vladislav Goranov, and the Head of the Customs Agency, General Vanyo Tanov, were made by the use of special surveillance devices.
The information was reported Monday by the Bulgarian news agency BTA, citing own sources from the Prosecutor's Office, saying this is the finding of the pre-trail probe and at least one person would be charged with illegal disclosure. The investigation has fully rejected the possibility the tapes could have been made privately.
The name of the individual has not been released, but the report confirms suspicions the tapes came from a probe against Tanov.
Hints about the existence of such probe were first thrown by former Interior Minister, Rumen Petkov, who became upset after the current Interior Head, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, accused him of participating, along with Tanov, in a plot for the redistribution of the illegal drug market in Bulgaria.
The tapes were made in May 2010, the investigation had further established.
The "spy" scandal was triggered by three tapes of discrediting conversations between Tanov and his superiors – Finance Minister Simeon Dajnkov and Deputy Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov – which were released at a news conference last Wednesday by the Galeria weekly, a paper believed to be the mouthpiece of Aleksei Petrov, former special agent of the State National Security Agency DANS, (currently under house arrest), who has been investigated on organized crime charges since his arrest in the much advertised "Operation Octopus" in February 2010.
The person who provided the tapes to Galeria remains unknown.
According to Bulgarian laws, special surveillance devices can be used only in order to reveal and prevent serious crimes, when there are no other means to investigate. They cannot be applied without a prosecutor's warrant; must be submitted with the prosecutor, and destroyed in 10 days if not used in legal proceedings as evidence. To make them public is a crime calling for jail time.
All of this means that someone had the tapes and waited for months for the suitable moment to disclose them and the law has been violated since they were not destroyed, despite the fact legal proceedings against Tanov have never been launched.
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