site.btaStart of Corpbank Case Adjourned Yet Again

Sofia, February 14 (BTA) - The start of the Corpbank case at the Specialized Criminal Court was adjourned yet again on Wednesday, after two previous failed attempts, this time because defendant Georgi Hristov, a former executive director of the failed bank, did not appear at the hearing due to illness. Hristov's lawyer asked the Court to be allowed to submit a sick note. The court ordered a medical expert examination into the gravity of the defendant's condition and fined him 1,000 leva for failing to produce a sick note in due time.

Next, the specialized court will try to proceed with the case on February 28.

Despite allegations that Corpbank's majority shareholder Tzvetan Vassilev had been served with six summonses and the indictment in Serbia, his defence argued on Wednesday that the banker had been unduly summonsed. His lawyers may move for a suspension of the Corpbank trial until the completion of the proceeding for Vassilev's extradition. They specified that a response to a letter rogatory arrived from Serbia on Tuesday. In the lawyers' opinion, the trial cannot proceed in their client's absence because his whereabouts are known. "This trial should long have been halted because of the presence of the principal defendant. How can he be absent and prevented from giving explanations in the case while the trial proceeds nevertheless?" lawyer Hristo Botev said.

According to the prosecution, the case can proceed even without Vassilev personal appearance in court. Supervising prosecutor Ivan Geshev, who heads the Specialized Prosecution Office, argued that Vassilev "is evading European justice". "He is in an extradition procedure because he does not wish to come to the EU rather than to Bulgaria because, if he wished that, would have stayed in Austria instead of hiding in Serbia."

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.

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.