Belgrade Mayor Says He Has No Property in Bulgaria

Belgrade Mayor Sini?a Mali has refuted claims that he owns a number of apartments at the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria.

Reports emerged on Monday in an investigation by Serbia-based network KRIK, done jointly with Bulgaria's Bivol, of property deals made by Mali between 2012 and 2013 on behalf of two Virgin Islands-registered companies of which he is the legal representatives.

“The controversial report does not specify any data that has to do with my role as a mayor, but only gives information from my professional life at a time when I used to work privately,” Balkan Insight quotes the mayor as saying in a statement.

In his words, KRIK's findings referred to a time when he worked as a consultant in a private company, and not for the government as the investigation alleges (he was advisor to now PM Aleksandar Vu?i? in 2012-2013, the latter taking at the time  other government positions).

But a KRIK editor told BIRN documents which his organization has show Mali is still selling apartments at the Black Sea.