Busts in Bulgaria’s Varna against 900 000 euro money laundering scheme
The economic crimes squad and Interior Ministry investigators carried out a special police operation, supervised by the district prosecutor’s office, in Bulgaria’s Black Sea city of Varna in connection with pre-trial proceedings in a case involving laundering of 900 000 euro, the ministry said on January 29.
A total of 10 addresses were searched in Varna, Aksakovo and Polski Trambesh.
The actions were the second stage in the case, the ministry said.
The funds are from fraud committed in Switzerland and that were transferred to a bank account of a Bulgarian trading company.
In the course of the investigation a system of subsequent transfers to various accounts of Bulgarian citizens, companies in Bulgaria and abroad was established.
The funds were redistributed and withdrawn in cash by assigned persons, who passed them on to the next level of the organisation and then to the organiser.
The search found and seized a wealth of evidence relevant to the criminal activity, the Interior Ministry said – routers from hacked IPs, desktops and laptops, tablets, mobile phones, SIM cards, multiple flash drives, data storage devices, electronic signature, banking devices, bank cards from Bulgarian and foreign banks, false seals of two commercial banks and seals of commercial companies, as well as bank documents.
An undocumented pistol was found and seized. Five people, “well known to law enforcement agencies”, have been placed in 24-hour detention.
At a previous stage of the case work, the organiser of the scheme was detained in Varna. He was subject to an Interpol red notice in connection with a prison sentence. The man had a long criminal record, the Interior Ministry said.
(Photo: Miroslav Saricka)
