“I’m planning to return to Bulgaria during or after the early parliamentary elections on July 11,” announced former gambling boss Vasil Bozhkov in an online interview for the "The Alternative" talk show.

Bozhkov stressed that he has a passport and can travel whenever he wants, despite media reports that his ID document has been taken away. The businessman is not worried about the fact that 19 charges have been brought against him in Bulgaria.

On Friday, Bozhkov's closest associate, Georgi Popov, arrived in Sofia from Dubai. Once his plane landed at Sofia Airport, he was detained by officers of the General Directorate "Security" of the Justice Ministry and police officers. The supervising prosecutors from the specialized prosecutor's office must decide what pre-trial restrictions to request for the businessman.

"Popov's case and mine go together, if there was an extradition, I should have been extradited as well. For me, there is a decision of the UAE Supreme Court that I will not be extradited. And do you know what that decision means? On all 19 charges I am innocent," explained the businessman.

Vasil Bozhkov reiterated that the cause of his and his partner’s problems was Boyko Borissov and Delyan Peevski, who took away his business.

"They destroyed my business so as I do not support other political forces.  Borissov kept my business going for years in exchange for 20% "racket", commented the former gambling boss and ironically reminded that in 2019 the authorities suddenly had “found out” that his gambling companies had not paid BGN 700 million in taxes.

Bozhkov also revealed that he was forced to take over the maintenance of the Levski FC because Borissov had threatened him.

"Levski was sheer racketeering. I've always supported sports, but when they say, "You take Levski or your business will be terminated" - do you have a choice? We saw what alerts Ilchovski's sent, didn't we? Our country was run like this until recently," the businessman said.

He claims to "know a lot of things" that he has yet to "share" with the relevant services. These include evidence of more than BGN 1 billion stolen and spent on purchasing properties in Dubai, Morocco and Vienna.

On Thursday, it was reported that the bankrupt company "New Games", through which Vasil Bozhkov organized his lottery, is suing Bulgaria in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, Mediapool reported.

The claim to be filed in Strasbourg has already been drawn up and the lottery will most likely claim huge compensation from the state, amounting to hundreds of millions of levs, as much as the damage inflicted to the company.

Bozhkov admitted that he and Peevski both live in Dubai, but they do not see each other. They've known each other since 2000, when Bozhkov helped Peevski start a business. However, Peevski then went to Ilya Pavlov and contacted Ahmed Dogan. The businessman also admitted that he had underestimated him a lot, which was a mistake.

"No one was paying attention to him, little boy, fat boy, come on we're going to help him here, come on, we're going to promote him there, until he became a monster."

The businessman was adamant that he did not play cards with Borissov because there is no pleasure in playing with people who do not know how to lose.

P.S. Meanwhile it transpired that Georgi Popov was released on BGN 40,000 bail.