WILL FORMER BANKER TZVETAN VASSILEV BE EXTRADITED TO BULGARIA?

The Bulgarian authorities have waited for the ruling on the extradition of the former banker and majority shareholder of Corporate Commercial Bank Tzvetan Vassilev for 2 years. On 9th of June, the court in Belgrade ruled to extradite Vassilev. Later, however, it became clear that after an appeal by Vassilev to the higher instance court, the decision was returned to the lower instance court because it was deficient.

Bulgaria’s Prosecutor’s office said that as of today, the case on the siphoning off of Corporate Commercial Bank will be against organized criminal group led by Tzvetan Vassilev. After 2 years of investigation, the prosecution‘s assessment is that the bank was siphoned off by an organised criminal group, including Tzvetan Vassilev, senior officials from the Bulgarian National Bank, the auditors, the four directors and employees of CorpBank. New charges are due to be pressed.

Vassilev has been alleged in abstentia for embezzlement of 206 million BGN. He surrendered to the Serbian police in September 2014 and the extradition procedure has been on-going since then.

His lawyer confirmed that the first instance court for a second time ruled to extradite Vassilev to Bulgaria and the second instance court again returned the ruling to the lower court.

The Bulgarian prosecution has not received any official response on the development of the extradition procedure. The delay of the extradition procedure will not affect the case in Bulgaria, Rumyana Arnaudova, the spokesperson of the Prosecutor’s office said. By court order to Serbia, the former banker has been duly summoned by Bulgaria’s Prosecutor’s Office and did not appear twice. Even if Vassilev does not appear, the case can proceed in abstentia.