By a decree of March 2025, Prosecutor Kalin Bliznakov of the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office terminated the criminal proceedings for participation in an organized criminal group for usury and extortion against businessman Veselin Denkov – owner of a chain of restaurants and a financial house.
According to prosecutor Bliznakov, there was no proven link between the individuals in the alleged organized criminal group and the witnesses with secret identities changed their testimonies from the pre-trial phase. Their testimonies themselves relayed “rumours in society and comments from others”.
Denkov’s misadventures with justice became known in 2021 thanks to the ACF investigation “Quick Checklist: the story of Veselin Denkov and specialised justice”. In the ACF films, his partner Ivayla Bakalova exposed with hidden camera footage Martin Bojanov, a criminal influence broker in the justice system who was murdered in 2024, offering to help the detainee Denkov get out of custody for a fee.
The criminal proceedings were initiated on 25 August 2020 by the now closed Specialized Prosecutor’s Office on “operational information of the General Directorate for Combating Organized Crime /GDKOP/ on the existence of an organized criminal group specialized in committing crimes related to illegal banking activities and committing violent acts”.
On the same date, Denkov submitted an official report to the chairman of the then Anti-Corruption Commission /KPKONPI/ and former Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov after a meeting between the two at the Commission four days earlier. The alert alleges that Denkov was repeatedly sought out by “intermediaries” who conveyed messages that he had to pay to be left to work in peace, otherwise he would face problems with justice.
In the first days of the investigation, law enforcement authorities were extremely active, with numerous interrogations and searches and seizures. Although he understood from his lawyer that he would be charged and detained, Denkov returned to the country on September 1, 2020 and was arrested.
The businessman remains in custody on the charge of involvement in an organized criminal group until 3 June 2021, just before the publication of the first part of the Fast Track List.
The validity of his detention, including the sufficiency of the evidence gathered for a crime, has been repeatedly confirmed by various chambers of the now closed Specialized /Specialized Court/ and the Specialized Court of Appeal /SACC/. The indictment against Denkov is based mainly on the testimony of witnesses with secret identities, many of whom give information about his membership of the alleged organized criminal group by hearsay – “I have heard it said that”.
Although the accusation is of participation in an organized criminal group for usury, in the course of the proceedings, a plot that formally has nothing to do with the subject matter of the case keeps creeping up – investigators are looking for information about Denkov’s involvement in financing the anti-government protests of the summer of 2020 and affiliation with the then-wanted businessman Vasil Bozhkov, who is credited with organizing the protests.
In 2021, the investigation was closed and the case was submitted to the SNS for consideration. By a ruling of February 2025, the Sofia City Court, where the case was moved after the closure of the SNS, returned it to the State Prosecutor’s Office for the removal of procedural violations that limited the defendants’ right to understand what they were accused of.
Upon receiving the case back, the SGO dismissed it as to the previously alleged organized criminal group due to “lack of definite and indisputable evidence” of its existence. According to prosecutor Bliznakov, there was no proven connection between the persons in the alleged organized criminal group and the witnesses with secret identities changed their testimonies from the pre-trial phase. Their testimonies themselves relayed “rumours in society and comments from other persons”.
“Thus, after more than four years, the prosecutor’s office put an end to the story of Veselin Denkov and the specialized justice system. However, the continuation will be financed by all of us, when the state will probably be asked to foot the bill for Denkov’s nine-month arrest thanks to rumours heard by anonymous witnesses and interpreted by numerous specialised judges as sufficient evidence of a crime”, said Andrei Yankulov, senior legal adviser to the Anti-Corruption Fund.
