site.btaFor Second Time, Appellate Court Acquits Defendants in High-Profile Money Laundering Case

For Second Time, Appellate Court Acquits Defendants in High-Profile Money Laundering Case

Sofia, November 9 (BTA) - For the second time, the Sofia Appelate Court acquitted Monday the defendants in a high-profile case for laundering of money acquired through a EU-funded carousel scheme. The key defendants in the case were Mario Nikolov and Lyudmil Stoykov. This court panel effectively reconfirmed the decision of a different panel of the same court several years ago.

The Sofia appeallate prosecution office said it is determined to challenge the acquittal.

During the course of the trial, what initially started as a single case over SAPARD aid irregularly claimed in Bulgaria in 2002-2005, was split into two mega-trials which have been closely monitored by Brussels: one for fraudulent claim of subsidy and one for money laundering.

In the case of fraudulent claims through counterfeit documents, Mario Nikolov was given a 12-year sentence by a first-instance court. His wife, Mariana Nikolova, was sentenced to five years in prison, and four other defendants were also given custodial sentences. A seventh defendant was also convicted by the first-instance court but died before the case was completed. Two persons were acquitted.

Afterwards, the Sofia Appellate Court reversed all sentences and returned the case to the stage of pre-trial proceedings over substantial procedural violations, including contradictions, ambiguities and omissions in the indictment.

The money laundering case against businessman Lyudmil Stoykov also flopped. He was indicted on charges of founding a criminal group led by Mario Nikolov for laundering over 12.8 million leva defrauded from SAPARD.

Stoykov was acquitted by the first-instance court, but the other defendants: Nikolov, his wife and three others were sentenced to imprisonment. The trial by a second-instance court failed to get off the ground for over two years, and when it finally did in 2012, the Sofia Appellate Court acquitted all the defendants.

In January 2013, then acting prosecutor general Boyko Naydenov moved for reopening the case on grounds of a violation of a Criminal Court provision saying that the court takes its decision reflecting its internal conviction based on an objective and thorough examination of all relevant circumstances and guided by the law, and another provision saying that the court should take measures to expose the objective truth.

In March 2014, the Supreme Court of Cassation reopened the SAPARD case and returned it to the Sofia Appellate Court, leading to this latest acquittal.