Bulgaria Top Prosecutor: No Evidence Shady Businessman Influenced Politicians

Bulgaria’s Chief Prosecutor, Boris Velchev, says the public outcry in the Krasio case is far more serious than the resources of his office to find the truth. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria’s Chief Prosecutor, Boris Velchev, says the probe had not revealed evidence that the notorious “Krasio from Pleven” had exerted influence on politicians.

Velchev spoke Thursday, answering questions from reporters.

Krasimir Georgiev aka “Krasio from Pleven” is an individual who, allegedly, offered magistrates to secure their appointment to high ranking positions through the vote of the VSS in exchange for EUR 200 000 in cash.

On Wednesday, the leader of the nationalist, far-right “Ataka” party, Volen Siderov, announced that the “black book” of the notorious "Krasio from Pleven” contains over 1 000 names of magistrates and high-ranking politicians.

The Chief Prosecutor, however, pointed out the probe involves only alleged corruption of magistrates at high-level posts, adding his office had submitted the entire list of Georgiev’s contacts to the Parliamentary Anti-Corruption Committee for further investigation.

Velchev admits that list would hardly present any evidence because it is impossible to learn what the phone conversations involved and scorned the media for speculating about names inside the list and for mentioning names of people, who were not included in Krasio’s contacts.

“This entire ordeal is a good reason for many to start asking questions. Plenty of us are startled by it and the public outcry is far more serious than the resources of my office to find the truth,” Velchev is quoted as saying.

18 Bulgarian magistrates face legal charges over their contacts with the shady businessman while it was reveled Wednesday that in addition to prosecutors and judges four Bulgarian Members of the Parliament have been in touch with him.

In addition to the magistrates, it was revealed last week that 4 former and current Members of the Parliament also had contacts with Krasio.