We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria introduced legislative amendments for second reading that would apply the sanctions under the global “Magnitsky” Act in Bulgaria. The texts were proposed at the second reading of the amendments to the Act on Measures Against Financing of Terrorism and the Act on Measures Against Money Laundering.
“The goal is to guarantee the security of the financial system, to limit the risks of money laundering, and to increase the likelihood that Bulgaria will be removed from the grey list. One of the measures is that municipal property should not be allocated to parties whose leadership includes sanctioned individuals; apparently, this refers to Mr. Peevski”, said Bozhidar Bozhanov, co-chairman of “Yes, Bulgaria.”
He clarified that the sanctions will be applied to all associated persons, so that networks connected to Delyan Peevski cannot operate completely freely within the country’s banking and financial system. He also recalled that the application of Magnitsky sanctions was part of We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria’s proposals for a sanitary cordon around Peevski, and that Democratic Bulgaria insisted on them during government negotiations with GERB.
“There are other countries that have developed their own legislation to introduce such sanctions, and we are now incorporating them into Bulgarian law, since the USA and the United Kingdom are partner countries and we rely on the intelligence data from them”, Bozhanov said.
“If we want to successfully fight Bulgaria’s exclusion from the grey list, to combat money laundering—which is primarily fueled by corruption and the pillaging of public resources—this is exactly the way to achieve more fairness and transparency. It is unacceptable for individuals, who have been charged in several countries with especially large-scale corruption, to have access to public resources,” said We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria deputy Lena Borisova.
She also recalled that as early as June 2021, Assen Vasilev, serving as acting finance minister, issued such a decision under the Magnitsky measures, which the Supreme Administrative Court—headed by Georgi Cholakov—overturned following a complaint by Peevski’s mother, Irena Krasteva. The court dismissed the implementation of the sanctions in our country due to a lack of legal basis, and therefore they are now being incorporated into law, Borisova said, urging all parties—apart from GERB and DPS–New Beginning, where such sanctioned persons exist—to support the bills. However, she did not rule out a positive surprise from these two parties either.
