Bulgarian police arrest chain store executive on European warrant from Italy
Bulgarian police arrested a senior Technomarket executive in Sofia in an operation co-ordinated by prosecutors and on the basis of a European arrest warrant issued at Italy’s request, the Prosecutor’s Office said on July 7.
The statement said that Nikolai Kitov, representative of the board of directors of Technomarket Ltd and K&K Electronics Ltd, had been taken into custody.
Kitov was detained on a European arrest warrant issued by the Italian authorities in connection with an international investigation connected to an alleged carousel tax fraud scheme concerning procurement of consumer electronics, the Prosecutor’s Office said.
The Bulgarian Prosecutor’s Office had received the warrant which had been authorised by a court in the Italian city of Monza. The Italian court had asked the Sofia City Court to authorise seach and seizure procedures at residential and business addresses of Kitov in Sofia.
Prosecutors said that these search and seizures had been conducted at Kitov’s home and at the offices of the two companies.
Technomarket was not involved in the investigation by the Italian police in connection with VAT draining, but had been asked for assistance which it had provided, the firm’s lawyer told local media. The firm had provided to the police authorities all documents required – accounting, transport, taxation and others.
No charges were laid against the chain, lawyer Gergana Yakimova said. Products were sold by Technomarket to Italian companies that were subjects of the investigation but once sold, there was no way of knowing what happened next with the goods, she said.
The firm worked with hundreds of partners – European partners and distributed products for markets where it had the right to do so, as was the case with Italy, Yakimova said. But once the goods left the warehouses of the chain, they were no longer theirs.
“We are surprised by the arrest of Mr. Nikolai Kitov, but it is not because he is the representative of Technomarket,” Yakimova said. “We have no way of knowing with which firms in Italy Mr Kitov is involved,” adding that Technomarket’s business was proceeding as normal.
(Photo: Bart Groenhuizen/sxc.hu)
