site.btaProsecution Service Investigating Criminal Group at Investment Agency
ESD 12:53:01 08-02-2022
DT1248ES.111
111 HOME AFFAIRS PROSECUTION - CITIZENSHIP - INVESTIGATION
Prosecution Service
Investigating Criminal Group
at Investment Agency
Sofia, February 8 (BTA) - The prosecution service is investigating a criminal group at the Bulgarian Investment Agency, Specialized Prosecutor's Office spokesperson Hristo Krastev told the media on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, the state prosecution said that it was conducting an investigation into the "golden passports". The investigation was initiated on Monday.
Actions are being carried out in the Bulgarian Investment Agency, the Ministry of Justice - Bulgarian Citizenship Directorate, the Migration Directorate of the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Economy.
According to Krastev, the group operated in the period 2015-2021. Five investigators and two prosecutors are working on the case.
The State Agency for National Security has been instructed to check the origin of the money invested in Bulgaria, as well as their movement, said Krastev and pointed out that the signal was submitted by an MRF MP.
[On February 4 MRF Deputy Floor Leader Hamid Hamid told a news briefing in Parliament that MRF have referred to the prosecution service an alert they have received about suspicious cases of granting Bulgarian citizenship or residence permits in exchange for investments.
He specified that an alert from a source he declined to identify, alleged the existence of a "monstrous golden passports scheme". Hamid said that the alert named over 120 persons, mainly Chinese (including some working for the Chinese special services) and Russians, who had obtained residence permits in the 2015-2021 period under false pretence, using the same intermediaries. They remitted an identical amount of money through a particular bank and were granted residence just by submitting photocopies of these statements of account, Hamid said.
Under the effective legislation, third-country nationals can obtain a permanent resident status if they invest at least 1 million leva and can be granted Bulgarian citizenship for a minimum 2 million leva investment without going through the cumbersome and time-consuming standard procedure.] RY/DT
/DT/
DT1248ES.111
111 HOME AFFAIRS PROSECUTION - CITIZENSHIP - INVESTIGATION
Prosecution Service
Investigating Criminal Group
at Investment Agency
Sofia, February 8 (BTA) - The prosecution service is investigating a criminal group at the Bulgarian Investment Agency, Specialized Prosecutor's Office spokesperson Hristo Krastev told the media on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, the state prosecution said that it was conducting an investigation into the "golden passports". The investigation was initiated on Monday.
Actions are being carried out in the Bulgarian Investment Agency, the Ministry of Justice - Bulgarian Citizenship Directorate, the Migration Directorate of the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Economy.
According to Krastev, the group operated in the period 2015-2021. Five investigators and two prosecutors are working on the case.
The State Agency for National Security has been instructed to check the origin of the money invested in Bulgaria, as well as their movement, said Krastev and pointed out that the signal was submitted by an MRF MP.
[On February 4 MRF Deputy Floor Leader Hamid Hamid told a news briefing in Parliament that MRF have referred to the prosecution service an alert they have received about suspicious cases of granting Bulgarian citizenship or residence permits in exchange for investments.
He specified that an alert from a source he declined to identify, alleged the existence of a "monstrous golden passports scheme". Hamid said that the alert named over 120 persons, mainly Chinese (including some working for the Chinese special services) and Russians, who had obtained residence permits in the 2015-2021 period under false pretence, using the same intermediaries. They remitted an identical amount of money through a particular bank and were granted residence just by submitting photocopies of these statements of account, Hamid said.
Under the effective legislation, third-country nationals can obtain a permanent resident status if they invest at least 1 million leva and can be granted Bulgarian citizenship for a minimum 2 million leva investment without going through the cumbersome and time-consuming standard procedure.] RY/DT
/DT/
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