Bulgarian Banks Shouldn’t Work with Blacklisted Firms, Corruption Has Taken Deep Roots – PM Stefan Yanev

To avoid further sanctions, banks do not have to conduct transactions with individuals and companies blacklisted and sanctioned by the US.

This was recommended by caretaker Prime Minister Stefan Yanev at the beginning of the Security Council meeting he convened. Sanctions under the Magnitsky Act and the work of special services are the two topics on the of the Council's agenda.

It was not clear from Yanev's words whether the government had mechanisms to prohibit banks from working with the blacklisted people and companies.  So far it has been Vasil Bozhkov, Delyan Peevski, Ilko Zheliazkov and 64 companies related to them. However, the list will be expanded with people and companies that could potentially be penalized by the US for links to the three and their companies, Yanev explained.

Bulgaria has no rules regulating the conduct of banks in such situations, the caretaker PM said. However, he hoped the next parliament would make the necessary legal amendments.

It is alarming and degrading to receive information from the outside about corrupt practices in Bulgaria, Prime Minister Stefan Yanev said of the resonance of the sanctions under the Magnitsky Act.

With regard to political stability in the context of the serious corruption environment that has been a fact of the last few days. On June 2, the Foreign Assets Control Office of the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on 3 Bulgarian individuals and 64 legal entities. This is an alarming signal that corruption in Bulgaria has taken deep roots in the political and economic system of the country and the problems and consequences in this regard are already going beyond our national borders, it is scary, the Prime Minister said further.

Yanev concluded that the corrupt...