Bulgarian prosecutors charge deputy minister with fraud
Bulgaria’s prosecutor’s office said on March 29 that it has filed a lawsuit in which Deputy Transport Minister Angel Popov is accused of fraud.
Popov is alleged to have met a transport company owner in August 2012, at which meeting he fradulently claimed that in exchange for 8000 euro, the company could obtain four additionaly shipping permits.
At that time, Popov had no way to influence the ministry’s department issuing such permits but appeared to imply that he could secure the permits by “handing different sums” to some of its employees, the prosecution statement said.
The statement did not explicitly say that Popov was offering to act as an intermediary to give bribes. It said that Popov’s actions constituted fraud because the individuals he named in his conversation with the transport company’s owner were not part of the working group issuing the permits.
If found guilty, Popov could face a prison term of between one and six years, the statement said.
(The Palace of Justice in Sofia, photo: Clive Leviev-Sawyer)
