Bulgaria Ex-Labor Minister Faces 20 Years in Jail over Embezzlement of BGN 10 M

Bulgaria's former Labor Minister and current Socialist Party MP, Emiliya Maslarova, is under the investigation for the embezzlement of BGN 10 M of state money.

Maslarova, and her friend Ventsislav Draganov, who has a construction firm, are believed to have pocketed BGN 9,8 M by violating the Public Procurement Act over the repair of a Ministry of Labor building in the southern city of Stara Zagora.

This was announced Friday by Prosecutor Stilyana Kozhuharova, a spokesperson of Bulgaria's Chief Prosecutor, Boris Velchev. Velchev has demanded the lifting of Maslarova’s MP immunity so the investigation could proceed.

Earlier on Friday Maslarova herself gave up her MP immunity voluntarily, calling the legal procedure against her "a monstrous libel", and claiming her family had been the target of political and personal harassment over the last six months.

The Chief Prosecutor's Office is presently awaiting the results from a large-scale inspection of the Ministry of Labor, which will be added to the 250 volumes of evidence already gathered.

After the inspection is ready, the prosecutors will decide exactly what charges they are going to raise against Maslarova and her friend Draganov. They are being investigated for large-scale embezzlement of public funds, and criminal breach of trust.

If found guilty of embezzlement, each of the two could receive between 5 and 20 years in jail; if found guilty of criminal beach of trust, their sentences could be between 3 and 10 years.

The prosecutors started to investigate the case with the Ministry of Labor building in Stara Zagora in August 2009.

After former Agriculture Minister in the Stanishev government, Valeri Tsvetanov from the DPS party, faced similar charges in September 2009 over land swap deals, Maslarova could become the second Minister to be charged over violations.

Bulgaria's former Prime Minister, Sergey Stanishev, himself is facing potential charges over mishandling and abusing classified information; not unlike Maslarova, he has agreed to have his MP immunity lifted.

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