The Sofia City Court began Monday the trial against the notorious SAPARD money laundering case against the so-called “Nikolov-Stoykov” group.

The magistrates rejected the request of the defense council to to halt the trail until mistakes in the official charges are cleared, and over claims some of the defendants had not received their subpoenas on time.

One of the mistakes, cited by the defense attorne,y is the failure to include in the charges a precise description of Nikolov's alleged violations, which did not allow the defense to build their case since they did not know if their client is accused of being a perpetrator of the money laundering scheme or just an accomplice.

The magistrates allowed preliminary hearings in the case, and are going to decide if the case will be tired by using a speedy procedure.

Mario Nikolov, Luydmil Stoykov and five other defendants are charged with siphoning EUR 7,5 M from the EU SAPARD funds.

Lyudmil Stoykov told reporters Monday that he wanted the speedy procedure in order to clear his name and denied allegations in the media that he had offshore accounts, and foreign properties.

Bulgarian media reports claim the two “businessmen” had registered an offshore company “Kingston Enterprises” in the US where the entire EUR 7,5 M received by Nikolov's businesses was laundered and then invested in the Bulgarian beach resort “Dyuni” which was previously owned by Stoykov.

The trail started Monday despite earlier announcements coming from Judge, Rumyiana Chanalova, that she intended to ask the European Court in Luxembourg for clarification on European norms, an act that would freeze the case until the answer is received. She now says she has given up an that idea, which made possible the beginning of the trail.

While the siphoning of millions of euros from the SAPARD funds was investigated as early as 2007, Mario Nikolov became truly notorious in June 2008 when a report by the European Anti-Fraud Office OLAF leaked to the Bulgarian media.

The report referred to Nikolov and his partner Lyudmil Stoykov as the leaders of the "Nikolov-Stoykov" group, which was allegedly involved in a number of corruption schemes and enjoying political protection.

The OLAF Report also exposed the two businessmen as sponsors of the election campaign of Bulgaria's President Georgi Parvanov, and as people close to the ruling Bulgarian Socialist Party.