site.btaSpecialized Criminal Court Rejects Defendant's Demand to Remove Prosecutor on Corpbank Case, Case Continues on May 9

Sofia, March 27 (BTA) - The Specialized Criminal Court Tuesday decided to proceed with the high-profile Corpbank case, rejecting a demand of the defence lawyers of principal defendant Tzvetan Vassilev to remove prosecutor Ivan Geshev from the case. Geshev is head of the Specialized Prosecution Office.

Defence lawyer Lazar Karadaliev quoted media interviews and statements of Geshev which the argued were implicative.

Geshev said at the hearing that part of Vassilev's defence strategy is to impart a political twist to the Corpbank case.

The prosecution considers it possible that the defence might try to discredit witnesses. Geshev quoted data according to which witnesses against Vassilev have been pressured into withdrawing their testimonies. The files on the case also contain written instructions on the discrediting of witnesses. Some 200,000 leva were paid for tampering with one witness, Geshev also said.

The next court hearing of the case was scheduled to be held on May 9, with reading of the indictment whose shortened version is 600 pages long, to be followed by questioning of witnesses and experts.

Vassilev is on trial for forming and leading a criminal group allegedly responsible for embezzling some 2,559 million leva from the bank, plus a total of 146 other criminal offences. The remaining 17 co-defendants include several former Corpbank executives, two KPMG auditors and three former senior BNB officials (two ex-deputy governors and heads of the Banking Supervision Department and a head of team), who are charged with malfeasance for failing to exercise control over Corpbank.

Vassilev left Bulgaria in 2014, before the Bulgarian authorities issued a warrant for his arrest. On July 28, 2014, the Bulgarian prosecution service charged him with embezzlement, and an Interpol Red Notice was issued for him on the same day. On September 16, 2014, he surrendered to the Serbian authorities in Belgrade and was released on a recognizance not to leave. Since then, he has been fighting an extradition request from Bulgaria.

Corpbank, then Bulgaria's fourth biggest lender, suspended all operations on June 21, 2014 after a run by depositors left it illiquid. The Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) Governing Council withdrew Corpbank's banking licence, effective November 6, 2014. The court declared the bank bankrupt on April 22, 2015. Its insolvency date was set at June 21, 2014.