Bulgaria Notorious SAPARD Draining Case Drags On

A Bulgarian court has postponed yet again the trial against Mario Nikolov and eight other defendants over the draining of EUR 8 M from the EU SAPARD program.

The trial was halted after Nikolov's lawyer failed to turn up in court due to illness.

Mario Nikolov's trial began on February 19; he is accused of numerous violations of the EU SAPARD program.

While the siphoning of millions of euros from the SAPARD funds was investigated as early as 2007, Mario Nikolov became truly notorious in June 2008 when a report by the European Anti-Fraud Office OLAF leaked to the Bulgarian media.

The report referred to Nikolov and his partner Lyudmil Stoykov as the leaders of the "Nikolov-Stoykov" group, which was allegedly involved in a number of corruption schemes and enjoying political protection.

The OLAF Report also exposed the two businessmen as sponsors of the election campaign of Bulgaria's President Georgi Parvanov, and as people close to the then ruling Bulgarian Socialist Party.

Mario Nikolov's trial has become a test of the ability of Bulgaria's judiciary to make use of the evidence provided by OLAF.