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ACTS announces journalistic investigations of various media because it supports freedom of expression.
Bulgarian MP, businessman and publisher Delyan Peevski has hired one of Washington’s most influential lobbying firms to help him with “problems in America,” he reports. “Free Europe”. The contract is between BGR Group and the Bulgarian company “Aviora Consult” of the lawyer Alexander Angelov, with whom Peevski works most often. The agreement was announced in front of the lobbyist registry of the Ministry of Justice, and it is explicitly stated that Angelov is acting “on behalf of Delyan Peevski”, who is a Bulgarian MP, Free Europe added. The contract states that “BGR will provide government and public relations services and facilitate communication with relevant officials and key figures in the United States, in an attempt to assist Mr. Peevski with problems in the United States.”
Alexander Angelov signed it on December 10 and on December 12 Ed Rodgers, the founder of the company, also signed it. The document was released on Wednesday, December 16, as required by US law.
It is not clear in the agreement what these “problems in the United States” are, for which Peevski needs the help of one of the three most influential lobbying firms in Washington. Free Europe has asked BGR, Aviora Consult and Delyan Peevski for comments, but no responses have yet been received. There is no response from the BGR representative in Washington, listed on the company’s website.
The contract states that the team that will help Peevski will be led by Tom Locke and Jeff Burnbaum. The first will be in charge of government relations and the second will be in charge of public relations. Tom Locke is an intelligence and law enforcement expert with contacts in the U.S. Department of Justice, part of which is the FBI’s Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the Department of Justice. Treasury, which is responsible for imposing sanctions on foreigners. faces, says “Free Europe.”
The media assures, referring to the specialized site ForeignLobby, that Delyan Peevski already had a contract and paid BGR a little more than 900,000 dollars for the services from 2017 to 2019. The current new contract is for 30 thousand dollars per month and for a period of 6 months. . It also provides additional coverage of costs such as domestic and international flights, accommodation, restaurant bills.
A few days ago it became clear that the defendants Atanas and Plamen Bobokovi have hired another US lobbying firm: Alexandria Group International. On his behalf, the company has submitted to the US State Department a summary with an analysis of the situation in Bulgaria, the investigation against Bobokovi and the relationships between Boyko Borisov, Delyan Peevski and Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev, Capital reported. The post claimed that the US Senate Homeland Security Committee was investigating MRF Deputy Delyan Peevski for trying to cover up illegal payments through intermediaries to hire US lobbyists to improve his reputation in the United States. The 13-page summary of the Bobokovi lobbying company’s explanation explains that the brothers have business interests in the United States: they supply batteries to NASA and have a contractual relationship with Chevron. This is your reason for seeking protection in the United States.
Boyko Borissov rules with a group of oligarchs in mutually beneficial relationships. The most prominent of them is Delyan Peevski, who operates above the law and has exceptional economic and political power. Legitimate business leaders in Bulgaria, victims of the current regime, recognize Peevski together. with Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev and Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, as the main architects of the democratic decline in Bulgaria and its transformation into a criminal state, ”the document reads.
According to Free Europe, the specialized American website ForeignLobby, which monitors lobbyists’ records and their contracts, sees a connection between the fact that Peevski is hiring a lobbying company right now and the actions of the Bobokov brothers in America. The publication recalls that Bobokovi and the wife of the accused owner of “Vinprom Karnobat” Minyu Staykov also hired a lobbying company to inform US lawmakers about the “criminal takeover of the state and businesses” in Bulgaria.
Not for the first time
This is not the first partnership between MRF MP and BGR, remember “Free Europe”. In 2017, again Alexander Angelov’s “Aviara Consult” hires the company. This happened as soon as the former majority owner of Corporate Commercial Bank (CCB) Tsvetan Vassilev initiated a procedure under the so-called Magnitsky Law and sent documents against Delyan Peevski and the then chief prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov. Defendant Vassilev claimed that the individuals he named had misappropriated $ 1.5 billion from Corporate Commercial Bank with the help of state institutions.
The Magnitsky Law, named after the Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, is aimed at human rights violators, who may not be public officials, and at public officials involved in large-scale acts of corruption. The sanctions under the Magnitsky Act are imposed with the signature of the US president and provide for the prohibition of entering the United States and the blocking of movable and immovable property in the country.
Apart from the initiatives of Tsvetan Vassilev and Bobokovi, there is another plot in the United States related to Delyan Peevski. Two years ago, a lawsuit was filed against him in the Southern District of New York under the RICO Act, which prosecutes racketeering and corruption. The lawsuit was filed by three companies over a failed real estate deal.
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