Bulgaria Ethnic Turkish Leader Probed for Money Laundering

Ahmed Dogan, leader of the ethnic Turkish party DPS was paid BGN 1,5 M as a consultant for the ‘Tsankov Kamak’, ‘Dospat’, ‘Gorna Arda’ and ‘Tundzha’ Dam projects. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's Prosecutor's Office is probing the ethnic Turkish DPS party leader, Ahmed Dogan, over his BGN 1,5 M commission as a consultant on 4 Bulgarian hydroelectricity projects for the previous Three-Way coalition cabinet.

The news was reported Wednesday by Darik radio, citing their own, unnamed sources, who say the probe involves money laundering.

In February 2009, Dogan, leader of the ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) which was a member of the former government, took BGN 1,5 M as a consultant for the ‘Tsankov Kamak’, ‘Dospat’, ‘Gorna Arda’ and ‘Tundzha’ Dam projects.

The payment of the money was made to Dogan through a contract signed between him and the Institute of Mining, through ‘Minstroy Holding’ represented by Nikolay Valkanov.

According to the original contract, in January 2008 Dogan was meant to be paid BGN 1,9 M but a year later in February 2009 he was officially paid BGN 1,5 M.

The Prosecutor's Office refuses to offer any details, and declined comments on the fact Dogan is Member of the Parliament and has immunity.

Earlier Wednesday, the spokesperson for Chief Prosecutor, Boris Velchev, announced their office is investigating the Thermal Power Plant (TPP) “Maritsa-Iztok (East) 2”, the project to build a second Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in the Danube town of Belene, the hydroelectricity project “Tsankov Kamak” and the National Electric Company (NEK).

It was, however, reported that the prosecutors have abandoned plans for starting pre-trial proceedings over the Belene nuclear power project due to lack of evidence for any wrongdoing.

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