site.btaUPDATED Law Enforcers Break Crime Group which Defrauded Exchequer of BGN 11 Mln

A crime group which was engaged in tax crimes and money laundering through a chain of companies was disrupted by the Bulgarian authorities on August 9. The news was reported by Senior Commissioner Kalin Litov, Deputy Head of the General Directorate Combating Organized Crime, and Evgeni Nankov, Deputy Executive Director of the National Revenue Agency, at a briefing on Wednesday.

Between 2021 and the middle of 2024, the group inflicted detriment on the public purse to the amount of BGN 9 million under a scheme for selling agricultural products and over BGN 2 million under another scheme which involved the supply of fertilizers.

The investigation began a few months ago. It found that cereals had been sold without documents and the identity of the recipients had been covered up. Part of the crops were sold in Bulgaria and another part went abroad.

The chain of companies used by the group included entities registered to the name of poor people of low social status and citizens of other EU member states.

Law enforcers carried out raids in Sofia, Montana, Vratsa and Pleven. They searched 27 properties and detained nine suspects, all of them Bulgarians. Charges were pressed against six of them. A court ordered indefinite remand for three people and released one on recognizance not to leave and two on bail.

Assets and bank accounts of members of the group have been distrained.