site.bta Finance Minister Goranov: Oman Fund's Claim against Bulgaria over Corpbank Is Unfounded

Finance Minister Goranov: Oman Fund's Claim against Bulgaria over  Corpbank Is Unfounded

Sofia, October 27 (BTA) - The claim of Oman's State General
Reserve Fund, as a shareholder in the failed Corporate
Commercial Bank (Corpbank), against the Bulgarian State is
unfounded, Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov told journalists
here on Tuesday.  "We have hired lawyers to defend this
position. They have the capacity and experience with similar
cases and we are not worried," he said.

The Oman Fund owned a 30 percent stake in Corpbank.

The news media reported Monday that the Fund has filed a claim
against Bulgaria for 150 million US dollars for damages
resulting from Corpbank's bankruptcy.  A Reuters story on the
matter Tuesday quoted  the online database of the
Washington-based International Centre for Settlement of
Investment Disputes. 

It went on to say that the Corpbank collapse triggered
Bulgaria's biggest financial crisis since the 1990s, prompting
Sofia to pay over 3.6 billion leva (USD 2.03 billion) to
guaranteed depositors and boosting the country's fiscal deficit
for 2014 to 5.8 percent of economic output.

On June 20, 2014, Corpbank suspended all operations after a
panic run by depositors left it illiquid. The central bank
withdrew Corpbank's banking licence on November 6, 2014 and a
court adjudicated the bank bankrupt on April 22, 2015. An ad hoc
 parliamentary committee, which looked into the Corpbank
failure, concluded this July that since its creation the bank
had been functioning as a financial pyramid with its majority
owner, Tsvetan Vassilev, at the top.