Bulgarian government officials have been arrested on allegations of accepting bribes in Bitcoin in return for illegitimately issuing Bulgarian identity documents to foreign individuals.
The Prosecutor General’s office arrested Head of Bulgarian state agency for Bulgarians’ matters abroad Petar Haralampiev, General Secretary Krasimir Tomov and the member of the agency Mark Stoyov, for illegally receiving numerous payments to issue documents, therefore illegally allowing foreigners to enter the European Union.
The prosecution further adds that the officials have purportedly made 40 fake documents a week, and received between 5 and 15 bribes each week since at least July 2017. This was only a month after Haralampiev was put in charge of the agency.
"Petar Haralampiev, Krasimir Tomov and Mark Stoyov arrested for fraud with the issuance of Bulgarian passports to Ukrainian, Moldovan and Macedonian citizens," said Chief Prosecutor of the State Ivan Geshev. "This is the most serious case of high-level corruption and there is no analogy in our modern history because we have collected concrete evidence of specific crimes."
Witnesses suggested that those refusing to comply with the bribe requests would experience huge delays in the issuing of documents.
They said that the accused have made it practically difficult if not impossible for applicants to receive their documents in a timely manner, unless they agree to pay up. Those that have paid, were even willing to pay more to speed up the process.
The prosecution started when an unnamed Ukrainian individual, whose request for documents had previously been denied, was suddenly able to receive a Bulgarian identity only after paying up with a Bitcoin bribe. Others include those coming from Macedonia, Moldova and Serbia, all countries with a large Bulgarian minority
The defendants argue that there is no solid evidence linking the accused to the illegitimate documents.
"There is no evidence that suggests either of the two accused individuals have received any funds," said the attorney said.
This was countered by the prosecutors, saying that the "Authorities have confiscated Bitcoin wallets, which prove that some of the bribe money has been converted to cryptocurrency."
One of the key witnesses in the case served as a deputy director in the National Agency. He said that he was aware of this scheme for months. This was further backed with a statement by another witness who testified that he had handed over bribes of approximately $5,700 to the defendants at least twice.
The scandal has led to some political parties calling for the Deputy Prime Minister Valeri Simeonov to resign.
Earlier, reports said that Bulgaria is one of the biggest stashes of Bitcoin in the world.
