KTB's CEO, Chief Accountant Interrogated Again in Embezzlement Probe

Corporate Commercial Bank (KTB) Chief Executive Orlin Rusev and Chief Accountant Mariya Dimova were interrogated in Bulgaria's capital Sofia on Monday.

The two senior employees are under investigation for allegedly having embezzled BGN 206 M from the bank. In mid-July the Sofia Prosecutor's Office announced it would not demand that they be placed into custody.

Prosecutors say that Dimova and her deputy Borislava Kyuchukova helped Rusev and Chief Cashier Margarita Petrova to misappropriate the money from CorpBank's vault.

They also maintain the illegal activity was requested by KTB's majority shareholder Tsvetan Vasilev, who is being sought out through the Schengen system, according to official information published last week.

Neither Orlin Rusev nor Mariya Dimova wished to comment on their stay at the Sofia Investigation Office.

Nikolay Rangelov, lawyer for Dimova, was quoted by the Bulgarian National Radio as explaining Petrova, who was released last week, might have chosen to provide assistance to investigators and this might have led to Monday's questioning session.

Prosecutor Ivan Geshev however pointed out it had been decided that Petrova should be released because there was no likelihood that she could commit "another crime".