site.btaSofia City Court Opens First Case against Vassil Bojkov

The Sofia City Court opened its first case against former gambling mogul Vassil Bojkov. He is a defendant in an investigation for an organized criminal group for extortion, official and corruption crimes.

The businessman was brought to court as an instigator with the complicity of officials from the Bulgarian State Commission on Gambling, who allowed the full amount of fees due under the Gambling Act to not be charged and collected. As a result of the criminal activity, damages were caused to the state budget in the amount of BGN 559,739,164.70, and much lower fees were collected.

Former finance minister Vladislav Goranov was also questioned in the case.

Ten persons were brought to court.

Criminal proceedings were initiated in the now-closed Specialized Prosecutor's Office in 2019. More than 250 witnesses were questioned, and the indictment was about 3,000 pages long.

The state filed a claim in the amount of nearly BGN 630 million.

The court decided that the state's claim would not be accepted because its consideration would complicate the case.

Bojkov's defence requested that the case be heard in a fast-track procedure.

The court did not agree with the request to return the indictment. Not all of the nearly 300 witnesses will be questioned.