Bulgaria's Trud daily newspaper renewed its corruption-claims raid against the country's former Prime Minister and ex-leader of rightist Union of democratic Forces (UDF) Ivan Kostov. On Monday, an article accusing Kostov of "stealing" money destined for tax paying landed on the paper's front page.

The author claims that in May 2001 two Bulgarian firms have granted some BGN 240,000 to the Democracy foundation, run by Kostov at that time.

Meanwhile, people close to those two firm leaders have been remitted a BGN 300,000 ticket for not paying value-added tax.

The newspaper alleges that Kostov protected those infringers because they paid part of the tax-withheld money to him.

A few months ago, Trud published an article that accused the influential rightist leader of receiving a bribe from controversial Israeli businessman Michael Chorny. The Russia-born businessman himself confirmed the information, claiming that Kostov had "blackmailed" him. After getting involved in a money-laundry scandal, Chorny was issued a ban from entering the country. He used to be the owner of Bulgarian mobile operator MobilTel and is now the president of Levski, one of the country's most popular football clubs.