site.btaFinance Minister Goranov Orders Check into Bulgarian Connection to Azerbaijani Laundromat

Sofia, September 6 (BTA) - Bulgarian Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov has ordered a check into the disclosures of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) entitled "Azerbaijani Laundromat", the Minister said in a position circulated to the media on Wednesday.

"We are following the story closely, and we are concerned about the information that has been circulated by the media. I have ordered a check of the data disclosed and have required an explanation from Bulgaria's representative on the EBRD Board of Directors, Kalin Mitrev," the position reads.

"On the basis of the information gathered, the Cabinet will take a stand on the case at its regular meeting on Thursday," Goranov notes.

"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.

The investigative reporting site www.bivol.bg alleges that some 800,000 euro of the Azerbaijani billions have reached Bulgarian companies and individuals. Nineteen transfers were made to Bulgarian banks between August 2012 and October 214. Part of the payments are for quite legitimate purposes.

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 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. He denies all knowledge of the conduit used to execute the payments or the original source of the funds. "All the income, generated by activities in different countries, was duly reported and taxed in my country of residence, Bulgaria," Mitrev said, quoted by "The Guardian". His consultancy work stopped when he joined the London bank, he said.