site.btaCourt Softens Measures of Restraint on Two More Corpbank Executives

Sofia, August 21 (BTA) - Another two senior executives of the ailing Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank) were placed under softer measures of restraint on Thursday after the bank's chief cashier was released from custody a day earlier.

Corpbank's Chief Accountant Maria Dimova, who had been under house arrest, is now free on recognizance, and her deputy Borislava Kyuchoukova was released from custody.

The two, along with the chief cashier and the executive director, have been charged with malfeasant embezzlement of 206 million leva from Corpbank between the end of 2011 and June 20, 2014. Corpbank suspended all operations on June 21, 2014, due to a lack of liquid assets and was placed under special
supervision by the central bank to allow a thorough audit and possible restructuring.

In its reasoning for Thursday's release of the two defendants, the Sofia City Court said that the administrators appointed by the central bank to oversee matters at Corpbank have found that an amount of money which was believed to be missing from Corpbank's cash deposit box is actually funds which are subject to an agreement between the bank and Bromak, a non-bank financial institution. Besides that, the court reasoned that the two defendants are unlikely to influence witnesses in the case or to conceal evidence, because their employment relationships with Corpbank were terminated on August 14.

Prosecutor Ivan Geshev said in the courtroom that part of the Corpbank money was intended for a political project. Emerging from the courtroom later on, Geshev declined to elaborate, saying only that he will appeal the release of Dimova and Kyuchoukova before a higher-instance court.

His observation about a political project was confirmed by Kyuchoukova's lawyer Hristo Botev, who said: "This is about a political project and there is evidence to support that." Botev said that both he and the court have detected contradictions in the testimony provided by witnesses.

The decision about Dimova's and Kyuchoukova's release will be reviewed by a higher-instance court a week from now.