site.btaProsecution Service, National Revenue Agency Launch Check into Kalin Mitrev Case

Sofia, September 7 (BTA) - Bulgaria's Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov has ordered a check, prompted by media reports, into payments effected by Azerbaijani companies to accounts of Bulgaria's representative to the EBRD Kalin Mitrev, the prosecution service said in a press release on Thursday.

The check will be conducted by the Sofia City Prosecution Office, and the National Revenue Agency will be assigned to establish, acting within its competence, whether there is reason to believe that tax offences or money laundering have been committed.

Bulgarian Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov said in a position circulated to the media on Wednesday that he had ordered a check into the disclosures of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) entitled "Azerbaijani Laundromat".

"Azerbaijani Laundromat" is a scheme through which the Azerbaijani authorities paid nearly 2,900 million dollars in over 16,000 remittances between 2012 and 2014 to prominent politicians and journalists for luxury purchases, money laundering and personal gains to project a positive image of the country in Europe at a time when President Ilham Aliyev was accused of human rights abuses and corruption.

Media reports say that before he became Alternate Director of the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for Bulgaria, Poland and Albania more than three years ago, Kalin Mitrev (husband of UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova) received at least 425,000 euro in eight transfers in Swiss and Bulgarian bank accounts registered under his name for a total of EUR 425,000.

In a written response to OCCRP reporters' questions, Mitrev, quoted by "The Guardian", said that the payments were legitimate compensation for consultancy work he had performed from May 2011 to April 2014 for the Baku-based company Avuar-Co LLC.