KTB Majority Owner to Appear in Belgrade Court over Extradition Case

Tsvetan Vasilev, the majority owner of insolvent Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank KTB), is to appear before the Belgrade High Court on Wednesday.

Vasilev is facing an extradition request from Bulgaria, which has been seeking to indict him with charges of embezzling BGN 206 M from his own bank.

KTB was Bulgaria's fourth-biggest lender, but collapsed following a run on deposits in June.

The prosecution and a number of Bulgarian politicians accuse him of running a pyramid scheme, while Vasilev himself calims the bank run was a "typical raiders' attack" that was "well-motivated politically and backed by all state institutions, and particularly by the prosecutors".

The deadline for an indictment to be filed with a Bulgarian court will expire in July, and the prosecuting authorities are waiting for Vasilev to return to do so.

Regardless of the Belgrade High Court's ruling, the final extradition decision lies in the hands of the Minister of Justice of Serbia.

Vasilev has also applied for asylum in Serbia, saying he is facing political persecution if extradited, but experts have suggested it is unlikely for such a request to be granted as Serbia is an EU candidate and cannot fulfill asylum requests from individuals who are being sought by a member state.

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