Corpbank Has Been Financial Pyramid Since Its Creation, Ad Hoc Parliamentary Committee Finds
Sofia, July 8 (BTA) - Since its creation, the now de-licensed
Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank) was functioning as a
financial pyramid with its majority owner being at the top, the
ad hoc parliamentary inquiry committee, which is examining the
case with Corpbank, concluded. Snezhana Dukova of GERB made the
findings public on Wednesday, after the document was deposited
in Parliament late on Tuesday.
According to Dukova, it was proven without a doubt that the
state institutions which were supposed to monitor banks and make
indicative changes to their condition when needed, are the ones
to blame. It was also proven that everything had been happening
before the eyes of the Bulgarian National Bank's (BNB) Banking
Supervision Department and the State Agency for National
Security (SANS) - the two main institutions, she added. Among
those guilty are three companies which conducted audits at
Corpbank, but it is up to the prosecuting magistracy to say
whether they were hiding something or had merely failed to see
what was happening. There were indications about Corpbank's
bankruptcy, which could have been easily seen by both the BNB
Banking Supervision Department and SANS, Dukova said, adding
that the two "had slept through this moment".
The ad hoc inquiry committee has also established that
Corpbank's private vault had been drained through connected
companies, with the money transferred without any collateral
whatsoever. Describing the scheme, Dukova said that companies
were created for the sole purpose of receiving credits from
Corpbank, which were then sold to other companies, which in turn
re-sell those assets again, until track is lost, with the final
stop being Corpbank's majority owner Tsvetan Vassilev. She
explained that this was one of the ways things happened, the
other being negotiating individually very high interest rates
for certain deposits, owned by some very important persons. This
sums up how the whole financial pyramid was functioning, the
GERB MP explained.
Dukova noted the scrapping of the bank secrecy as being the
result of the committee's work. Legislative changes related to
the central bank's banking supervision and SANS' functions are
yet to come.
Movement for Rights and Freedoms MP Peter Chobanov, who was
minister of finance during Plamen Oresharski's government,
commented the committee's report by saying that the responsible
institution, after all, is the central bank's Banking
Supervision Department.
According to Chobanov, the banking supervision failed to do its
job in preventing Corpbank from functioning as a financial
pyramid for a long time. He said that the report contains the
names of the companies which had received unsecured loans, which
in turn had contributed to the deterioration of Corpbank's
condition. Chobanov said that according to the report, Corpbank
was illiquid as of June 20, 2014. He explained, however, that he
was not told that the bank was illiquid as of that date while
serving as finance minister. Chobanov said that the unsecured
loans were over four billion leva.
***
Former prime minister Ivan Kostov was questioned by the Sofia
City Prosecution's Office on Wednesday as a witness in the
deliberate negligence case against Corpbank's conservators.
Supposedly Kostov had a preferential contract for his deposit of
155,000 leva, which had been renegotiated into a regular
deposit shortly before Corpbank' bankruptcy. This allegedly
allowed Kostov to save his money by making his deposit
guaranteed by the State.
Speaking to journalists Wendesday, the former prime minister
called on the prosecuting magistracy to show the contract in
question, which it believes he had changed in order to save his
deposit at Corpbank. If such a contract does not exist, let the
supervising prosecutors disprove it, because they are the
prosecuting magistracy for everyone and not just somebody,
Kostov told journalists.
According to him, such a contract does not exist. Kostov said
that he has officially asked the prosecutors to come out and
disprove this "slander campaign".
The former prime minister believes his involvement in the
investigation of the conservators is politically motivated, but
did not mention who he believes is behind it.
On June 20, 2014, Corpbank (Bulgaria's fourth biggest lender)
suspended all operations after a panic run by depositors left it
illiquid. The central bank's Governing Council withdrew
Corpbank's banking licence on November 6, 2014. The Sofia City
Court adjudicated the bank bankrupt on April 22.
news.modal.text