site.btaCorpbank Siphoning Off Goes to Court

Sofia, July 20 (BTA) - An indictment for the siphoning off of Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank) was presented to the Sofia City Court on Thursday.

Corpbank's former majority shareholder Tzvetan Vassilev has been charged on 76 counts, including leading a crime group and very serious embezzlement. He has been hiding from Bulgarian justice in Serbia since 2014.

Corpbank was hit by a run on deposits and suspended all operations on June 21, 2014. The Bulgarian National Bank withdrew its licence on November 6, 2014, when it found that the bank's own funds amounted to minus 3,700 million leva and its assets were impaired by 4,222 million leva. On April 22, 2015, the Sofia City Court adjudicated Corpbank bankrupt.

All copies of the indictment in their entirety exceed 210,000 pages, with charges brought against 18 persons on more than 5,000 pages. Over 400 witnesses have been questioned and 27 experts have submitted more than 90 examination reports. The evidence has been compiled in more than 1,360 volumes.

Tsvetan Gounev, a former deputy governor of the central bank, is among those indicted for abuse of office.