Busted Bulgarian Ex Top Official Kept Stolen Antique Book

Tencho Popov is shown here before the court hearing when he was left in jail for taking part in a bribery scheme. Photo by BGNES

Tencho Popov, the recently arrested former Finance Ministry Secretary, was the collector from whom the police seized the stolen “Riben Bukvar”, Bulgaria’s first modern textbook.

Popov is currently in jail as he was busted together with former Defense Minister Nikolay Tsonev and judge Petar Santirov for offering a bribe to an investigator.

The "Riben Bukvar" was published in 1824 in Bucharest by the Bulgarian scholar Petar Beron, and was the first modern Bulgarian textbook, which had a tremendous impact on Bulgarians during the nation's Revival Period (19th century).

It was stolen from the museum in Kotel in November 2008, but was subsequently recovered by the police unit investigating trafficking of antiques in April 2009.

The police announced at the time the invaluable historic book was seized from a private collector but did not reveal his name.

However, it has turned out that the collector in question was Tencho Popov, according to a report of Pro.bg TV.

The Riben Bukvar was actually found in the law office of Popov’s wife, Antoaneta Popova, who is also the sister of Petar Santirov, the judge arrested together with Popov and ex Defense Minister Tsonev.

According to Pro.bg, the former Chief Secretary of the Finance Ministry, Tencho Popov, is also involved in a “scandalous” sale of Bulgarian state orders over the Internet back in 2005.

The TV channel cited prosecutor Boris Balev as saying that the Finance Ministry offered on sale medals and state orders which were supposed to be destroyed.

The former Chief Secretary of the Finance Ministry, Tencho Popov, is also a former Deputy Chair of the NMSP party. At the end of the 1990s, he served as a Financial Director of the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant. After quiting the Finance Ministry, Popov has worked as a financial consultant. He is still a member of the NMSP party of former Tsar and PM Simeon Saxe-Coburg.

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