BULGARIAN NATIONAL BANK REPEALS THE LICENSE OF CORPORATE COMMERCIAL BANK AND GIVES THE MAJORITY SHAREHOLDER, TSVETAN VASSILEV, TO THE PROSECUTOR

The Bulgarian National Bank said on 11th of July it would repeal the license of Corporate Commercial Bank (CCB) and will give CCB and the majority shareholder, Tsvetan Vassilev, to the prosecutor. The audit of the Bulgarian National Bank found many missing files for loans worth 3,5 billion BGN.

The 3.5 billion lev in loans, for which the records are missing, are 2/3 of the CCB’s total credit portfolio of 5,4 billion BGN. The BNB Governor, Ivan Iskrov, said that a significant part of this portfolio pointed towards an extensive connection between the debtors and CCB majority shareholder Tsvetan Vassilev. He added that such actions were incompatible with the law and the good banking practices. The insufficient information made it impossible to assess the financial situation of the debtors and their ability to service the loans, BNB said.

CCB was placed under special supervision on 20th of June because of insolvency risk. In the announcement following the results of the audit, BNB said that the deposits of individuals and companies would be transferred to Credit Agricole Bulgaria Bank, which would be nationalized.

According to the BNB Governor, Ivan Iskrov, all the funds of the depositors will be guaranteed. BNB will make everything possible Credit Agricole Bulgaria to open on 21st of July and provide access to the money of the depositors. There are three possible ways to support the new bank, which will soon be renamed – though the BNB budget, through the Bulgarian Deposit Insurance Fund and through the state budget, BNB noted.

BNB Governor said that the national bank would submit the report of the auditors, which made a review of CCB assets and liabilities, to the Chief Prosecutor’s Office of Bulgaria. According to findings of the conservators, on 19th of June this year, one day before the bank was placed under special supervision, 205,887,223 BGN were withdrawn from CCB in cash by a third party, against a receipt and then handed to the CCB majority shareholder, Iskrov said.

The Chairperson of the CCB Management Board, Orlin Russev and the CCB chief cashier, Margarita Petrova, have been arrested in relation to the signal submitted by BNB about illegal withdrawal of money from the CCB vault, the Prosecutor’s Office said. Documents are being prepared for summoning Tsvetan Vassilev from abroad, under the international legal assistance.

According to the signal submitted to the chief Prosecutor on Wednesday, on 19th of June, one day before CCB was placed under special supervision, large amounts of money was illegally withdrawn from the CBB vault, in BGN, Euro and dollars, at the total amount of 205 million BGN. An investigation was undertaken immediately and as a result, today, on 11th of July, Orlin Russev, the executive director of CBB was arrested in the Black Sea coastal town of Sozopol. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, he personally ordered the money to be taken from the vault.

The CCB chief cashier, Margarita Petrova, was also arrested over allegations for misappropriation of particularly large amounts of cash. The Prosecutor’s Office argues that she took bags of money out of the bank’s vault and handed them to third persons. The materials are attached to the investigation initiated about 20 days ago against the BNB Deputy Governor, Tsvetan Gounev. Gounev is under investigation for failing to perform his banking supervision duties.