site.btaSupreme Judicial Council Checks Magistrates with Deposits in Corpbank

Supreme Judicial Council Checks Magistrates with Deposits in Corpbank

Sofia, February 11 (BTA) - The Ethical Commission of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) will perform a check of the magistrates, who had deposits in the Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank), Commission Chairman Yassen Todorov told journalists on Thursday.

The decision has been prompted by the depositors' lists, published by the media. The commission is yet to decide how to proceed but it will most probably request from the trustees in bankruptcy the original of the list and information about possible non-compliance with the amount, kept in the magistrates' deposits and the tax returns from the National Audit Office.

According to Todorov, the theory that most of the depositors in the bank were judges, prosecutors and investigators is manipulative and that there were many other depositors, some of whom were members of the executive.

Todorov voiced hope that the check will be completed in a month. Asked about the featuring of Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) in the list with two deposits of a total of 2.4 million leva, DSB Deputy Chair Atanas Atanassov replied that he does not know what these funds are but voiced confidence that they are clean. The big question, Atanassov, said, is how the bank had been led to bankruptcy through unsecured loans. It is good to perform a check of the deposits and their origin through the National Revenue Agency but the big manipulation in the public spectrum now is that the focus is placed on the depositing and not on the syphoning of the money.

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 withdrew Corpbank's banking licence on November 5, 2014, and the bank's bankruptcy was petitioned on November 7.