U.S., UK sanction eight Bulgarians over alleged corruption

WASHINGTON/LONDON (Reuters) - The United States and Britain on Friday sanctioned eight Bulgarians for alleged corruption, including the country’s wealthiest man and a former minister who allegedly profited illegally from deals involving Bulgaria's only nuclear power plant and Russian energy firms.

The coordinated actions were aimed at countering “systemic corruption ... that resulted in illicit personal gain, undermined the country’s democratic institutions, and perpetuated its corrosive dependence on Russian energy sources,” the U.S. Treasury said in a statement.

Bulgaria, a member of NATO and the European Union, ranks among Europe’s most corrupt countries, according to the Transparency International advocacy group, and has been criticized for failing to root out corruption.

Washington sanctioned five former Bulgarian officials and five entities controlled by two of them. London banned the entry into Britain and imposed asset freezes on three other Bulgarians – all slapped with U.S. sanctions in 2021 – including Vasil Bozhkov, the country’s wealthiest man.

The U.S. measures freeze any property and interests the five former officials and five entities have in the United States, the statement said.

Among those sanctioned was Rumen Ovcharov, a former energy minister and lawmaker who “repeatedly engaged in corrupt energy contracts” with Russian energy firms, accepting bribes in return for fixed-price deals for Russian gas, nuclear fuel, and support for the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP), Bulgaria’s sole nuclear facility, the statement said.

Ovcharov declined to comment.

The statement said that he and another former energy minister, Aleksandar Nikolov, coordinated contracts to buy power from KNPP that they then resold to the national electricity company even though the company had a deal to purchase power directly from the facility.

Nicholov said he did not know why he was sanctioned.

Washington also targeted Nikolay Malinov, a former Parliament member, for allegedly bribing a judge to allow him to travel to Russia to receive an award from President Vladimir Putin. Malinov had been barred from leaving Bulgaria following his arrest in 2019 on espionage charges, the statement said.

"I am flattered. If the U.S. Treasury barks against me that means I am headed in the right direction," Malinov said in response.

The Treasury said Vladislav Goranov, a former lawmaker and finance minister, was sanctioned for a scheme in which tens of millions of euros in bribes were paid to Bulgarian officials in exchange for legislation favoring the gambling industry.

Goranov said he was not acquainted with the allegations.

In addition to Bozhkov, who is a fugitive, Britain targeted former lawmaker Delyan Peevski and former national security official Ilko Zhelyazkov, a one-time board member of the country’s largest state energy company, for allegedly misusing state funds.

(Reporting by Jonathan Landay in Washington and Sachin Ravikumar in London; additional reporting by Tsvetelia Tsolova in Sofia; Editing by Leslie Adler)