Ex-Bulgarian Customs Boss Implicates Ex-PM in Pressuring Officers

Crime | February 11, 2014, Tuesday // 14:06
Ex-Bulgarian Customs Boss Implicates Ex-PM in Pressuring Officers: Ex-Bulgarian Customs Boss Implicates Ex-PM in Pressuring Officers Former Bulgarian Customs Director, Vanyo Tanov, photo BGNES

The former head of the Customs Inspectorate, Spas Shopov, revealed that Bulgarian ex-Customs Boss, Vanyo Tanov, had pressured him over certain probes.

Shopov testified Tuesday before the ad-hoc parliamentary committee examining the infamous Misho The Beer case.

In mid-January 2010, businessman Mihail Mihov, AKA Misho The Beer, became notoriously known through his involvement in the "Tapegate" saga.

At a press conference, the Galeria weekly released a tape of a conversation between then Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov and Tanov, from which it emerged Borisov might have provided a cover-up for Mihov in connection with a probe in the latter's brewery "Ledenika."

On Tuesday, Shopov cited Tanov telling him to be careful when proposing people from the Customs agency to be sanctioned in order to avoid getting in trouble with Borisov for possibly targeting one of his friends.

The former Inspectorate Head also said that instructions coming directly from Borisov for the "Ledenika" probe have been at the time a public secret in the Customs agency.

He further informed the probe has been halted after a phone call from the then PM, while the team of Customs officers that worked in the case with the brewery, leading to the revocation of its license, became subject to internal checks.

According to Shopov, one of the top excise duty experts had been removed from the agency after having participated in the Ledenika probe and Tanov had complained that he had been severely "crushed" by Borisov over the case.

Shopov further added that the case was so outlandish that Customs officers at the time were making bets of who will the first one to be sacked over the brewery probe.

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Tags: Galeria, Misho the Beer, Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, Tapegate, Ledenika, Mihail Mihov, Misho Birata, Customs Agency, Vanyo Tanov, probe, Ledenika, brewery, inspectorate, customs, Customs Agency, Spas Shopov

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