The Anti-Corruption Fund referred the published correspondence between Vasil Bozhkov and “Vladi Goranov” to the Prosecutor General

The Anti-Corruption Fund (ACF) has sent a referral to the Prosecutor General, calling for an inspection of the content of a text message exchange published in many media outlets, allegedly between the accused businessman Vasil Bozhkov and the Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov.

The referral was prompted by the Prosecutor General’s statement in a TV interview for the Bulgarian National Television from 16.05.2020[1] that he was not familiar with the content of the alleged correspondence published on 15.05.2020, but was informed by his colleagues that there is nothing irregular.

According to the ACF, confirming the messages’ authenticity, claimed by the accused businessman and not denied by the Minister of Finance (and even indirectly confirmed in his public statement about being in contact with the businessman), would mean:

– the arranged meetings between the two preceded key meetings of the State Gambling Commission at the Ministry of Finance regarding the businessman’s gambling business.

– the Minister reported to the businessman about his instructions to the former chairwoman of the State Commission on Gambling.

– the Minister reported to the businessman about his advice to another former chairperson of the State Commission on Gambling not to take actions interfering with the routine operation of the businessman’s companies during inspections of them by the Commission.

This information should not be considered in isolation, but in the context of:

– the statements of the accused businessman that he had communicated exclusively with the Minister of Finance about his gambling business.

– The Minister of Finance’s position that he was not responsible for the businessman’s companies failing to pay hundreds of millions of leva of their due fees, for which other officials are already publicly persecuted.