Bulgaria Softens Illegal Assets Crack-Down to Target 'Real Criminals'

Analysts have commented that the new amendments to the law will practically make many people with illegal assets untouchable. File photo by BGNES

Bulgarian authorities are likely to have the right to launch probes and seize following an indictment unexplained wealth, worth more than BGN 250,000, which has been acquired over the last ten years.

This is envisaged by amendments to the long-delayed bill authorizing widespread confiscation of illegally obtained assets, which were tabled in parliament by the Justice Ministry on Tuesday afternoon.

The majority in Bulgaria's parliament surprisingly failed to pass through the keenly expected bill in July last year, triggering fierce criticism in the EU and US, as well as suspicions of a set-up.

The draft law, initiated by Bulgaria's former Justice Minister and current  Vice President-elect Margarita Popova and widely touted by the ruling party as a powerful tool in crime and corruption combat, initially envisaged that the commission will have the right to launch investigations into incomes and acquisitions for the last twenty-five years and seize assets without conviction.

"The new version of the bill seeks to target not the ordinary citizens, but the members of organized crime groups," the recently appointed Justice Minister Diana Kovacheva justified the changes.

Analysts however have commented that the period of ten years and the condition for an indictment in place practically will make many people untouchable.

The Council of Europe's Venice Commission approved the previous, fifth version of the draft law in the middle of last year and recommended that it enters into force in 2012.

The commission called on Bulgaria's parliament to pass the new law by its summer recess. The European Commission, which sees the legislation as a powerful weapon in the country's corruption combat, had set the same deadline.

The law will allow the state Commission for Establishing of Property Acquired from Criminal Activity to probe the property and bank account of members of the families of people who cannot explain their sources of income in court and their partners.

Donations made in order to hide assets from the commission will also be subject to probes. Under the law transactions with criminally acquired property will be void and subject to forfeiture. So if the holders of illegal assets get rid of them by selling them quickly at low prices, buyers can also be held accountable.

The current center-right government of Bulgaria, led by Boyko Borisov, was elected two years ago on an anti-corruption mandate and on the promise to bring to justice those involved in huge-scale corruption schemes.

Some embezzlement trials against high-ranking officials have been widely considered to be a litmus test for the government's willingness to do so in practice, but most of them have ended with acquittals.

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