The acting director of the state reserve is being probed for suspected abuse in office and drainage at the cost of about BGN 45 M.

Police suspect that Yovcho Yovchev has participated in an illegal scheme of fuel drainage through forged bank guarantees presented by the cheating companies. The "lent" fuel, however, had never been restored to the state reserve.

He also faces charges of negligence and malfeasance in office that has allegedly incurred damages of approximately BGN 41 M.

Another nine people face charges for participation in the same scam, Interior Ministry's Secretary Lieutenant-General Boyko Borisov announced and added that the country's Chief Prosecutor Nikola Filchev was also informed about the case.

Yovhcev is heading the State Reserve agency since December 2003 when his predecessor was dismissed with a decree of the Council of Ministers.

His name has previously been involved in another scandal over alleged grain drainage from the State Reserve. In April 2004 opposition MPs sound the alarm about possible large-scale grain drainage from the state reserve and insist that the Cabinet renounces the existing duty free import of grain.

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