Bulgarian prosecutors charge Sevlievo customs head over 10 years of alleged bribery

Bulgaria’s Special Prosecutor’s Office has laid charges against Yordanka Kostadinova, head of the customs office in the town of Sevlievo, alleging that she received bribes from a company manager every month for a period of 10 years.

A statement by the Prosecutor’s Office said that Kostadinova had requested and received 200 leva (about 100 euro) a month from July 2009 to July 2019 in return for not carrying out customs inspections of the local company.

The statement said that the total amount that Kostadinova had received amounted to about 24 000 leva.

Kostadinova is also charged in connection with allegedly having tipped off a sales consultant about a forthcoming inspection by the customs authorities.

Because Kostadinova was in poor health, the prosecutor in charge of the case had agreed to her being released on bail of 100 000 leva, the statement said.

Prosecutors were continuing to gather evidence of possible other offences committed by Kostadinova.

New charges may be brought. There was also evidence of crimes committed by others, the statement said.

(Archive photo: mvr.bg)

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