The Sofia City Court granted the prosecutor’s request and left former gambling boss Vasil Bozhkov in permanent custody. He surprisingly returned to Bulgaria on August 25, after spending 3 and a half years in Dubai, hiding from Bulgarian justice.
The remand order imposed on him on Saturday is for one of the cases against him – for gambling and unpaid fees for over half a billion levs in the state budget.
However, the news from the court session is different. Surprisingly, the prosecutor in the case, Angel Kanev, decided to export data on communication and joint business between Bozhkov and the leader of the private military company “Wagner” Yevgeny Prigozhin. The famous “chef” of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who went from being a trusted ally to his adversary, died a few days ago in a plane crash, according to official Russian authorities.
“It is obvious that Bozhkov had direct relations with Russian citizens, most of whom are connected to an offshore company, which has something in common with the accused in the Georgi Popov case”said the prosecutor.
“The accused Bozhkov has structured active companies operating in the field of gambling with significant financial capital, he has registered gambling activities in the Republic of Georgia”he added.
“From a computer with Vasil Bozhkov’s e-mail, it is clear that the accused had business relations with the Russian citizen Yevgeny Prigozhin and a number of other Russian citizens sanctioned after the annexation of Crimea.”, the prosecutor pointed out. This was established more than two and a half years ago, but it is being reported only now, it became clear from the words of Angel Kanev.
Among the 19 accusations brought against Vasil Bozhkov, there is none for violating the sanctions against Russia, or at least there are no known ones.
That is why it was not clear what Bozhkov’s connections with the Russians had in common, even with such an influential person as Prigozhin. Bozhkov himself said that this is “nonsense”.
The prosecutor added that there is an investigation against Bozhkov for tax crimes and money laundering in Moldova as well.
The court left Bozhkov in custody
“In order to guarantee all the measures for non-abortion, the composition finds that the adequate measure against the accused Bozhkov is detention in custody”. said judge Hristinka Koleva.
The decision of the court can be appealed to the higher instance. The Court of Appeal will hear the case on September 5.
Bozhkov asked to be released, and after hearing the court’s decision, he said he would appeal.
Prosecutor’s Office: There is a risk that Bozhkov will abscond
The prosecutor’s office pleads for Bozhkov to remain permanently in custody, due to the risk of absconding.
Angel Kanev pointed out that Bozhkov did not pay fees in the amount of BGN 500 million from his gambling activity and that he paid BGN 10,000 per day to Ognemir Mitev, former head of the Gambling Commission, so that everything could be okay
In conclusion, the prosecutor said that all the evidence indicates that there is a danger that Vasil Bozhkov will go into hiding and commit a new crime.
“The danger of committing another crime is completely real. He is an instigator of official crimes with 300 separate acts for over BGN 500 million”Kanev said.
On these grounds, he requested that Bozhkov remain in custody permanently.
Bozhkov’s defense: I was confused, am I on a political trial?
Vasil Bozhkov’s lawyer, Georgi Gatev, stated that at one point he got confused because he did not know if he was in a case for which there was a specific charge or if he was present at a “heavy political trial”.
“90% of what was presented has nothing to do with the case. This is an indictment on some international scandal related to espionage, nothing was specifically said here about the Gambling Commission. Here things related to Putin, Moldova, Vietnam, Kenya, Russia, Ukraine, I’m off the rails from what I hear”said Georgi Gatev.
According to these materials that are in front of you, there is hardly a person who will not say that there is a reason for the accused to abscond, but not because of the things that were said by the prosecutor and about the measure of detention, Gatev told the court .
He pointed out that the presented evidence about Bozhkov’s connections with Russian citizens is not relevant in the case.
Georgi Gatev pointed out that the businessman has a permanent address, has not been convicted and voluntarily returned from abroad. “This circumstance is the most essential, because there are no prerequisites for us to take the most severe measure”the defense said.
In his words, “someone has an interest in the defendant’s arrest”.
“Specific people tried to create negative insinuations. Bozhkov left the country legally, the authorities knew he would travel. No attempts were made to detain him at the border. He was never subsequently subpoenaed regularly in this case, he was not officially notified. The Emirates did not notify my client that he was called up.”Bozhkov’s lawyer pointed out.
He indicated that it was known where Bozhkov was located and lived. Another issue is that the papers cannot be officially handed over to him, Gatev said.
“Back in May 2023, he issued a request to the prosecutor’s office to be called as a witness in the case, regardless of the fact that he could be detained. The authorities did not give such a decision.”the defense said.
The court: Bozhkov remains in custody
After listening to both sides, the Sofia City Court decided that the businessman Vasil Bozhkov remains in custody because there is a risk of absconding. The court’s decision is not final and is subject to appeal before the Court of Appeal on September 5.
According to judge Hristinka Koleva, sufficient evidence has been gathered in the case that the businessman committed the crimes for which he is accused.
Some of them are testimonies of a number of witnesses. Among them, she pointed out the testimony of the former deputy director of the Gambling Commission, Maria Filipova, who claimed that Bozhkov “groped her, kissed her and tried to rape her”.
The former Minister of Justice and Foreign Affairs is also being questioned in the case. She testified that against Bozhkov there was a ban on issuing him an international passport.
The return of Bozhkov
Vasil Bozhkov was detained upon his arrival at Sofia Airport on Friday afternoon. He was taken out through the VIP section of the airport and taken to the Ministry of Internal Affairs hospital for examination. The businessman did not want extensive examinations and the procedure was finished quickly, said his lawyer Stojan Baumeier.
“He returned quite voluntarily and at the first opportunity, because until August 23 he did not have permission from the authorities in Dubai to leave the country for reasons of his security.”he explained.
Two accusations against Bozhkov so far
On Friday evening, the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office charged Vasil Bozhkov with two of the cases. One is the criminal case for incitement to four murders, one of which is related to the 2015 assassination attempt against Aleksey Petrov. The other charge is in the gambling case, according to which his companies did not pay taxes for 700 million leva, thereby causing damage the state budget, according to the state prosecution.
“At the moment, he was only presented with the decrees for bringing him as a defendant. In one of the cases, which we call him criminal – there are the cases with criminal offenses, and the other one is related to gambling”said Bozhkov’s other lawyer – Georgi Gatev to journalists at the Courthouse on Friday evening.
According to him, Vasil Bozhkov remained silent during the interrogations.
“In principle, he does not give an explanation. He exercised the right now not to give an explanation, but at a later stage he himself will decide whether to give or not”said Gatev.
He called it a “coincidence” the fact that Vasil Bozhkv is returning to Bulgaria a day after the funeral of another significant figure of the transition, Alexey Petrov, who was killed a few days ago.
Georgi Gatev recalled that Vasil Bozhkov wanted to return to Bulgaria as early as May, but there were “objective reasons” that did not allow him to do so. “I have been taking steps to return to the country for a long time, but things have slowed down,” Gatev said.
His lawyer said he had no idea what Bozhkov meant by the expression: “I have a meeting with the buns”, which he wrote on his Facebook page when he landed in Sofia.
The prosecutor’s office has closed the coup d’état case
The prosecutor’s office has closed one of the cases against Vasil Bozhkov. It is about the investigation into an attempted coup d’état – a crime against the republic. This was announced by Georgi Gatev to the edition “Sega”.
The decree on the termination of the four supervising prosecutors is dated June 1, 2023, i.e. almost 3 months ago.
So far, the prosecutor’s office has not announced its decision to drop the case, which began noisily in July 2021.
The case under Chapter One of the Criminal Code was initiated in 2020 by the special prosecutor’s office, and Bozhkov was charged with it on July 19, 2021. At the time, the prosecutor’s office announced that “the evidence collected at the moment indicates that the head of the group – V.B. also provided the financing of the criminal act”.
“To implement their criminal plan, the participants in the group had the task of creating a potential danger to life through hooliganism and creating conditions for the escalation of tension during the peaceful civil protests on the territory of Atanas Burov Square, Sofia and the health of the protesters,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Bozhkov’s recordings were made on the basis of this investigation, which the prosecutor’s office distributed a few days after the public discontent erupted in the summer of 2020 against the former government of Boyko Borisov and the then chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev. In practice, this is how the prosecution tried to discredit the protest.
According to the investigators, the businessman commented on the organization of the demonstrations with the journalist Ognyan Stefanov, as well as with the former MP from the BSP Alexander Paunov, who was at the funeral of Alexei Petrov.
“Politicians and oligarchs paying provocateurs to use civil energy is not new. The new thing is that the one who was supposed to be the unifier of the nation – Radev, supported fugitives from justice. We continue in the name of the future of the Motherland!” , wrote Ivan Geshev on “Twitter” then.
Summons in the case for the arrest of Boyko Borisov
Vasil Bozhkov was also served with a summons in the case for the arrest of Boyko Borisov, in which he is a witness, Gatev also said. According to him, however, when he will be questioned depends on his remand.
In May 2023, as the conflict between then-Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev and GERB leader Boyko Borisov was heating up, Bozhkov said he was ready to return as a protected witness against the former prime minister.
Boyko Borisov, former finance minister Vladislav Goranov and his publicist Sevdalina Arnaudova were detained on March 17, 2022 with a police warrant in an emergency case of extortion against Bozhkov.
Immediately after the arrest, the prosecutor’s office criticized the actions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and released the three without charging them. Then-Minister of the Interior Boyko Rashkov and Prime Minister Kiril Petkov accused the prosecutor’s office of sabotaging the investigation and refusing to verify Vasil Bozhkov’s claims that he paid huge bribes to Borisov.
The state prosecution responded that Bozhkov should be questioned as a witness, but this could not be done through a video conference call. Therefore, the prosecutor’s office sent a request for legal assistance to Dubai, but received no response.
Meanwhile, the court declared the arrest warrants for Borisov, Goranov and Arnaudova illegal.
