Money laundering

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov has denied links to a suspected money-laundering scheme based in Barcelona. He issued the denial after a Barcelona-based newspaper published a front-page report on Friday claiming he and other senior officials in Sofia might be linked to another Bulgarian citizen in Spain suspected of laundering millions of euros through the city.

The European Commission has sent legal warnings to Cyprus, Portugal, the Netherlands and five other EU states over their delays in applying new anti-money laundering rules adopted at European Union level two years ago.

Public quarrels between politicians and rich businessmen over alleged links to organized crime are hardly new, especially in a country ranked among the most corrupt in Europe, Bloomberg reported.
The case of Vasil Bozhkov in Bulgaria, though, has captured the national imagination because it cuts to the heart of the Balkan country's heritage.

A European money laundering watchdog has cautioned that a secretive investment-for-passports program run by Cyprus was vulnerable to money laundering and fraught with risk.
The Mediterranean island launched the scheme offering passports for an investment in 2013, with more than 3,000 people gaining citizenship through the program.

The First Deputy Assistant Secretary in the US Treasury - Paul Ahern, is visiting Sofia. He will be in the country by February 11th.

Ahern will meet with representatives of the Bulgarian government. The talks will focus on the cooperation in the area of combating money laundering and terrorist financing.

A US court in Brooklyn has jailed a former consulate worker and Kosovo Foreign Ministry staffer for nine years for his role in an elaborate money-laundering scheme that resulted in him buying and selling an anti-tank rocket launcher and rifles in Kosovo.

Just two months after receiving a 15-year prison sentence for his role in a bribery scandal concerning German giant Siemens, a former senior executive of the company's Greek branch was released from jail citing health reasons.

The Turkish financial crimes unit slammed a global money laundering watchdog report against the country's money laundering efforts.

"Turkey's struggles weren't revealed in the report. [Turkey] was subjected to unfair assessment," Turkey's Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) officials told Anadolu Agency on Dec. 19 on a recent report by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

Currently, the controlling bodies in the European Union detect only 1% of the proceeds from money laundering on the Old Continent, BNT reported.

Turkish authorities must address shortcomings in tackling money laundering and terrorism financing or face being added to a "grey list" of countries with inadequate financial controls, according to a global money laundering watchdog.