Diploma-Forging Bulgarian Ex Agriculture Fund CEO Drags Down Father

The head of the Sofia Fire Department, Ivan Iliev, will be resigning amidst the scandal with his daughter Kalina Ilieva, the former head of Bulgaria's State Agriculture Fund who was found to have forged her diploma from a German university.

.Ivan Iliev is currently on a leave, and will resign as of January 1, 2011, as a result of the scandal that shook Bulgaria's Agriculture Ministry in the past weeks, according to a report of bTV channel citing Interior Ministry sources.

On Tuesday, Nov 30, 2010, the Berlin Institute of Technology, formally told the Bulgarian Ministries of agriculture and education that Kalina Ilieva forged her diploma, and that Germany's Prosecutor's Office has taken up the case. If found guilty of forgery, Ilieva might get up to 10 years in jail under German law.

Bulgaria's National Center for Information and Documentation (NACID has also received the Institute's letter, and has referred it to the Sofia Prosecutor's Office.

Ilieva's appointment as head of the State Agricultural Fund, a crucial state agency that distribute state and EU funding for agriculture and rural regions, by the Borisov government in 2009 was met with comments that it has been brought about by the connections that her father had with Prime Minister Borisov, a former fire-fighter and top policemen.

These claims have been refuted numerous times by Borisov and Agriculture Minister Miroslav Naydenov.

On Wednesday both Borisov and Naydenov commented that Ilieva had lied to them, and that she had hidden her pregnancy – another issue surrounding her which led to her dismissal in October 2010.

Bulgarian "168 Chasa" weekly first broke the scandalous news, citing officials from the institute, who stated that Ilieva not only does not have a Master's degree in Economic Relations and Communications but was even expelled from the university because she did not attend her exams.

The Bulgarian weekly reported last week that the discrepancy was discovered after the Bulgarian Education Ministry sent a request to the Berlin Institute with attached documents for Ilieva's Master's degree, presented by her in Sofia.

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