Bulgaria's Interior Minister Denies Ex Secret Agent Accusations

Politics » DOMESTIC | October 17, 2010, Sunday // 19:46
Bulgaria: Bulgaria's Interior Minister Denies Ex Secret Agent Accusations Bulgaria's Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, has confessed the existence of a deal with a Belgian company but has denied the accusations that he damaged the Sofia municipality by EUR 1 M. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, has denied damaging Sofia municipality by providing guarantee of EUR 1 M for the building of a security system in the subway in the capital.

Tsvetanov was accused by former secret agent Alexei Petrov of participating in an illegal deal with a Belgian fund in 2006.

According to Petrov, the reason for the "Octopus" police operation and his arrest and investigation as the leader of a crime group was an attempt by Tsvetanov to conceal the missing money and to neutralize him as a witness on the case.

The former agent has stated that he was asked by then Sofia mayor, Boyko Borisov, to help find EUR 1 M, which would be used a s a guarantee to the Belgian fund.

Even though the municipality was not allowed to guarantee the money by itself and was supposed to form a public-private partnership, the former agent claimed he managed to collect the money and the deal was signed.

However, it was later discovered that the money was gone and in Petrov's opinion, it went straight to Tsvetanov's pocket.

The interior minister did not deny the existence of such a deal.

"This was a project, offered by a Belgian company, for a center for video-monitoring of the subway stations. It was supposed to be a donation to the Sofia municipality, which never gave even BGN 1 to this company and never will," Tsvetanov said.

He has explained that the Sofia municipality does not owe anything to the Belgian company because, in his words, it operated with money from European donation programs, which aim at helping local authorities.

In an interview for the Bulgarian private Nova TV, Tsvetanov said that during the negotiations, it was made clear that the Sofia municipality could not provide money for guarantee because it did not have it and because it could not provide any money without organizing a public procurement first.

"And then we said that we would cancel this project, if it was connected to a money guarantee. We defended the interest of the Sofia municipality," he said.

However, he was not asked whether the sum was actually transferred to a fund, controlled by him, as Petrov said, and what happened with the money afterwards.

Tsvetanov also denied the statements of the leader of the party "Order, Law and Justice," Yane Yanev, who claimed that the interior minister had grown rich illegally and that he had been sponsored by companies, related to the ethnic Turkish party DPS.

On Friday, Yanev insisted that the tax agents perform check on Tsvetanov's properties.

"I have declared absolutely everything. I have six apartments and they are all transparent," Tsvetanov said.

He stated again his theory that the accusations against him were made up and added that he could not start dialogues with all people, arrested on serious crime charges, who attack him.

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Tags: Tsvetan Tsvetanov, Alexei Petrov, Yane Yanev, Sofia Municipality, Octopus

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