Bulgaria Exposes 4 Runners for President as Secret Police Agents

A bankrupt Bulgarian bank head and a former intelligence agent are two of four runners for president, who have been – quite predictably - exposed as as state security agents and collaborators.

Ventsislav Yosifov, former director of First Private Bank, which went bankrupt in 1999, collaborated to the State Security under the nickname Iliev, the special panel, investigating Bulgaria's communist-era police files, reveled on Tuesday.

Yosifov is former husband of Socialist leader Sergey Stanishev's current girlfriend - Monica Yosifova, who made headlines earlier this year by giving birth to the former prime minister's first child.

Ventsislav Yosifov and nine of his associates, including Dimitrov, were accused in 2003 of illegally extending loans in the period from 1991 to 1996 that are said to have led to First Private Bank's bankruptcy. They however were released on bail for BGN 20,000 and were never sentenced.

Alexei Petrov, an alleged godfather of racketeering, kidnapping and prostitution, has been on a payroll at the notorious VI department of the State Security.

Petrov, dubbed the "Octopus" and the "Tractor," is a former employee of the State Agency for National Security (DANS), and a shady businessman. He has figured prominently in Bulgaria's public life since 2008 when it was revealed he was an undercover agent, only for this information to be dismissed later as false.

Under the cabinet Borisov, on February 10, 2010, Petrov was arrested, in a widely publicized special police operation codenamed "Octopus." He was charged with racketeering, money laundering, abetting prostitution, trading in influence and drug trafficking, spent 9 months in jail and was released on house arrest and later on own recognizance.

The special panel, investigating Bulgaria's communist-era police files, said it has also exposed Krasimir Karackachanov, leader of Bulgaria's nationalist VMRO party, and Stefan Solakov, nominated for President by the National Front for Saving Bulgaria, as state security agents and collaborators.

The files of the former Committee for State Security are a thorny issue in Bulgaria, especially when it comes to the past of high-ranking officials.

The blacklist of former state security agents and collaborators features current Socialist President Georgi Parvanov, MPs, former constitutional judges, supreme magistrates, investigators, members of parliament, prominent and well-known former and current Bulgarian journalists.

Bulgaria's communist-era security service is believed to have remained potent after the fall of communism with the ex-operatives closely linked to the political and business establishment.

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