Bulgaria anti-corruption body finds no conflict of interest in politicians’ apartment deals
Bulgaria’s anti-corruption commission has completed a probe into apartment purchases by several senior politicians, finding that none of them breached conflict of interest rules
The commission published seven separate decisions on June 24, dated June 19, closing proceedings against former GERB parliamentary leader Tsvetan Tsvetanov, former justice minister Tsetska Tsacheva, Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelkova, former deputy sport minister Vanya Koleva, former deputy energy minister Krassimir Parvanov and Vezhdi Rashidov, head of Parliament’s committee on culture and a former culture minister. It also closed the conflict of interest investigation against Lozan Panov, head of Bulgaria’s Supreme Court of Cassation.
The investigations by the anti-corruption body, officially the Commision for Combating Corruption and the Withdrawal of the Illegally Acquired Property, were launched after media reports, spread over a period of time in March-April, claimed that the politicians had acquired property at an allegedly below-market value price.
Four of those cases – Tsvetanov, Tsacheva, Koleva and Rashidov – involved purchases from the same company.
The anti-corruption body found that there was no evidence that any of the people it investigated had used their respective public office to acquire the properties.
(Tsvetan Tsvetanov resigned as MP and all leadership posts in Prime Minister Boiko Borissov’s GERB party as a result of the controversy. Photo: gerb.bg)
