Bulgarian Registry Agency Ex CEO Faces 3 Years Suspended Sentence

Crime | October 16, 2013, Wednesday // 16:22
Bulgaria: Bulgarian Registry Agency Ex CEO Faces 3 Years Suspended Sentence Violeta Nikolova, the former Executive Director of the Registry Agency, became notorious with the scandalous bonus payments at the institution. Photo by BGNES

Prosecutors have demanded a three-year suspended sentence with five years of probation for the former executive director of Bulgaria’s Registry Agency, who has been charged with fraud.

Prosecutors will insist that the court bans Violeta Nikolova from public offices, strip her of the right to exercise her profession and seize her property.

The Head of the Agency's Administrative Services, Human Resources and PR Department, Rayna Ivanova, and the Financial Controller, Totka Stoilova, have been charged as well.

According to the prosecution, from July 19 to December 19, 2011, Nikolova with Ivanova as accomplice, have embezzled BGN 53 000 from the budget of the Agency. They are also charged with preparing in December 2011 a letter to the Justice Ministry with forged facts.

Stoilova is charged for not doing her duties as financial controller, which inflicted damages to the Agency in the amount of BGN 53 000.

The three are on own recognizance. A levy has been imposed on Nikolova's bank accounts and on one real estate property.

Nikolova was dismissed in February 2012 over the poor results of the audit of the institution and the substantial financial incentives she had awarded to herself.

It was revealed that she had received a total of BGN 73 000 in bonus payments for 2011, BGN 25 000 of which had arrived after an order by Margaritra Popova, then-Justice Minister and now Vice President, while the remaining BGN 48 000 had been ordered by Nikolova in person.

In her property declaration filed at the time she was still CEO, she has listed "nothing to declare." Nikolova has also declared EUR 100 in her bank account, while her husband declared EUR 900.

In 2011, however, she has acquired an apartment for BGN 106 000, through a mortgage loan. Nikolova also has a BGN 20 000 consumer loan.

She was appointed CEO of the Registry Agency in October 2010 and is remembered by the long lines of people before the Agency's offices.

Shortly after Nikolova's dismissal, it was reported that Bulgaria was facing a fine of EUR 800 000 by the European Commission over a delay in the introduction of new software at the Registry Agency, which would have allowed the online registration of European companies in the Agency's database.

The public procurement tender for the software was launched in March 2010 only to get suspended three months later due to a funding shortage.

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Tags: Customs Agency, NRA, National Revenue Agency, registration, European Commission, bonus payment, Registry Agency, trade register, Violeta Nikolova, power, abuse, embezzlement, bonuses, bonus, charges, Prosecutor's Office

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