Sofia court impounds 1.2M leva assets of former Parliament deputy speaker
Sofia City Court has impounded assets worth 1.26 million leva, about 645 500 euro, held by the former deputy speaker of Bulgaria’s Parliament Hristo Biserov, who is to stand trial on charges of large-scale tax evasion, breaking the law on currency transactions and document fraud.
The assets include real estate in Sofia, a car and nine bank accounts, the country’s asset forfeiture commission said in a statement on April 27. Additionally, the commission said that the court ruled to impound about 293 000 leva in assets held by Biserov’s stepson, Ivailo Glavinkov, who was also being investigated alongside Biserov.
The commission said that it had requested information on Biserov and Glavinkov’s accounts from seven countries, including Switzerland and Macedonia.
Biserov surprisingly resigned from all leadership positions in MRF and from Parliament on November 3 2013, citing personal reasons. Just days later, on November 7 2013, prosecutors said that they opened an investigation against Biserov and his stepson, Ivailo Glavinkov, after receiving a report from the State Agency for National Security (SANS) detailing suspicious movement of funds from accounts in other European countries.
Biserov and Glavinkov also made term deposits, withdrew cash and transferred funds to companies registered in the Seychelles, according to the SANS report, as quoted by the prosecutor’s office statement. A week later, on November 15, the prosecutor’s office said that it pressed charges against both Biserov and Glavinkov.
The lawsuit against Biserov, a former deputy leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) who served as deputy speaker of Parliament in 2013, was filed earlier this month, the prosecutor’s office said.
(Photo of Hristo Biserov on an MRF campaign poster: dps.bg)
