OLAF Suspects Corruption of Presidential Anti-Corruption Secretary Plamen Uzunov

OLAF has suspected the presidential anti-corruption secretary Plamen Uzunov of corruption. The investigation relates to a contract signed on March 23, 2017. At the time, Uzunov was acting interior minister.

Here is the announcement from OLAF:

The Bulgarian Interior Ministry has violated the terms of its grant agreement with the European Commission by using EU funds to purchase sport utility vehicles from older stocks rather than new off-road police cars, according to a recent OLAF investigation – the European Anti-Fraud Office. OLAF has recommended that around 6 million euros be reimbursed to the EU budget, as well as assessing the preconditions for initiating criminal proceedings against ministry officials.

OLAF’s investigation started in July 2018 following allegations of fraud and embezzlement of EU funds under the grant agreement of the EU Internal Security Fund, managed by the Bulgarian Ministry of the Interior. The agreement covers the supply of 350 vehicles for any land intended for the police.

In the course of the investigation, OLAF collected and analyzed all relevant documentation from the Bulgarian Ministry of the Interior and conducted interviews with all key players in the preparation and execution of the tender procedure. All parties concerned by the investigation fully cooperated with the OLAF investigators.

OLAF found that the Ministry of the Interior had violated the provisions of the grant agreement by unilaterally changing its terms. In particular, the Ministry has chosen to purchase multiple SUVs rather than all-terrain vehicles that were the subject of the grant agreement. OLAF also concluded that there were reasons to believe that the Ministry officials were likely to have committed a crime (abuse of power under the Bulgarian Penal Code) affecting the financial interests of the EU.

The investigation was closed by OLAF in December 2020 with recommendations to the European Commission (which manages the fund) to reimburse EUR 5,948,569 to the EU budget. Recommendations were made to the Bulgarian Public Prosecutor’s Office to assess the existence of preconditions for initiating a criminal investigation for abuse of power in favor of a third party.

It is for the competent authorities of the EU and national competent authorities to consider and decide on the follow-up of OLAF’s recommendations. All affected persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty before a competent court, the statement concludes.

In the summer of last year, an influence peddling investigation was launched against Presidential Secretary Plamen Uzunov. It started after investigators in the debris case against brothers Atanas and Plamen Bobokovi, the former deputy. Environment Minister Krassimir Zhivkov and several other people came across a conversation between Uzunov and Plamen Bobokov. In it they commented on the BADR ship and the diplomatic appointments.

Then, the Special Prosecutor’s Office lured Plamen Bobokov and Plamen Uzunov to participate in a criminal conspiracy in order to trade with official influences and crimes in the period of early January 2019.

The two were also charged with committing a crime of complicity in the period from May 8, 2019 to August 28, 2019.
According to the prosecution, Bobokov incited Uzunov as a civil servant 21 times to violate his official duties, regulated in the Regulation of the Administration of the President of the Republic of Bulgaria and the job description for his position, in order to obtain benefits for the entrepreneur.
This had significant harmful consequences: the disclosure of information that he learned in the service of persons outside the circle of those authorized to receive it, as well as undermining the prestige of the presidential institution among the citizens of the Republic of Bulgaria and endangering the national security of the country by revealing the operational interest of a special intelligence service.

According to this research, Uzunov has some restraint on bail.