The Bulgarian businessman, Tihomir Kamenov, owner of a pharmaceutical distribution company, has written to the European Commission complaining about Bulgaria's health system being rife with conflicts, corruption and greed, the International Herald Tribune reported Friday.

As the European authorities told Bulgaria once more to root out corruption on Thursday, Kamenov has accused government health officials of demanding monthly cash kickbacks totaling up to EUR 2.8 M.

Kamenov's letter accuses Emil Raynov, the deputy minister of health care in Bulgaria and an adviser to PM Sergey Stanishev, of demanding monthly payments.

"Corruption is everywhere, including the United States and Europe, but the fundamental difference in Bulgaria is that it's much more brutal," Kamenov said in an interview, explaining that he sought a European review because he had reached "legal exhaustion" in Bulgaria.

Kamenov, a lawyer who founded the wholesale pharmaceutical distributor, Commercial League, in 1991, first raised his allegations about kickbacks in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. There he hand-delivered a six-page complaint to Jacques Barrot, the European commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs.

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