site.btaSpecialized Prosecution Office Indicts Controversial Businessman Nikolay Banev, Wife and Mother

ESD 16:26:01 22-08-2019
LG1632ES.110
110 HOME AFFAIRS - BANEVS - INDICTED

Specialized Prosecution Office Indicts
Controversial Businessman Nikolay Banev,
Wife and Mother


Sofia, August 22 (BTA) - The Specialized Prosecution Office said on Thursday that it had presented an indictment against Nikolay, Evgenia and Maria Banev to the Specialized Criminal Court. They are charged with participation in an organized crime group, tax offences, money laundering and unlawful possession of firearms.

Banev is charged as perpetrator of the tax offences and his wife Evgenia as his aider. The two were committed for trial as joint participants in the money laundering.

Banev's mother Maria will be tried for participation in an organized crime group, the press release says.

The court will schedule a date for a hearing of the case within two months.

Nikolay and Evgenia Banev were arrested by the French authorities at Nice Airport on October 26, 2018 on a European Arrest Warrant and were handed over to Specialized Prosecution Office investigators on December 6, 2018. The businessman is now held in custody, and his wife has been released on her own recognizance on health grounds. Prosecutors say that between 2005 and 2018 the Banevs drained four privatized enterprises, evaded dozens of millions in taxes and laundered 1 billion leva. Banev's 77-year-old mother has been charged as a participant in an organized crime group for tax offences, misappropriation and money laundering. LN/LG
//