site.btaEx-Varna Mayor Calls EPPO Charges in Fishing Port Probe "Total Manipulation"

Former Varna mayor Ivan Portnih called "an absolute manipulation" the announcement by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) on October 11 that he and three others had been formally accused in an investigation into possible fraud involving the reconstruction of a fishing port. "I protest against the publication of anything, against anyone without the information being verified and without his point of view being heard," said Portnih on Monday.

Also accused are an ex-governor of Varna and two public officials from the Executive Agency Maritime Administration. The possible fraud was first reported to EPPO by the EU anti-fraud agency, OLAF.

The four are accused of forging official documents and submitting false information, in order to illegally receive EU funds for a EUR 3.4 million project, co-funded by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund. At issue is a project to improve the infrastructure of an existing fishing port in the outskirts of Varna, submitted by the Municipality of Varna, which was the beneficiary. However, according to the investigation, such a port did not exist when the application for EU funding was submitted. EPPO has found out that in order to be able to benefit from EU funds dedicated for improvement of existing fishing ports, the beneficiary assembled several pontoons as floating piers, with the sole purpose of registering the site as an existing harbour. In addition, the beneficiary presented false information and did not include all the documents required by the national legislation to obtain the necessary certificates. 

Portnih defined the case as an "absolute manipulation" and the recent publications related to him as "fake and deliberately manufactured news". 

The Former Varna Mayor presented documents for a unanimous decision of the Varna City Council to apply for the programme and approve the text of the agreement. Portnih said the latter is a tripartite agreement between the Municipality of Varna, the regional government and the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), which was paid BGN 300,000 for a feasibility study and a project to apply for the programme for the fishing ports. "We have seen this scenario before - it started in March 2021, before the [parliamentary] elections, then before the local elections I called a pre-emptive briefing, because the European Prosecutor's Office was about to do the same thing before them," Portnih said.

According to Ivan Portnih, the attack is not against him, as he is neither mayor nor an MP candidate now. The attack is intended to cause a stir and divert attention from other important issues, such as the loss of BGN 80 million in state funding by Varna Municipality. He accused the current leadership of Varna of managerial and administrative weakness.

What was posted on the wall of the European Prosecutor's Office in Luxembourg in English, copied from there and translated and reprinted in some media is not an opinion of the supervising prosecutor, said GERB-UDF MP candidate Branimir Balachev, lawyer of former Varna governor Stoyan Pasev, who is also accused in this case.

"The supervising prosecutor is Dimitar Belichev, I have personally spoken with him and he said that he did not give permission for anything to be published about the pre-trial proceedings," Balachev added. He said his client had furnished more than 100 documents refuting the claim that "we invented it [fishing port] in order to appropriate some funds".