Anti-corruption body finds no breaches in top politicians' property deals

Bulgaria’s anti-corruption commission (the Commission for Countering Corruption and Forfeiture of Illegally Acquired Property) found no breaches in the checks it conducted into the property deals of former GERB deputy leader Tsvetan Tsvetanov, Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelkova, former justice minister Tsetska Tsacheva, former deputy Sports Minister Vanya Koleva, former deputy energy minister Krassimir Purvanov, MP Vezhdi Rashidov, and Supreme Cassation Court President Lozan Panov.

The checks against the ruling majority politicians were prompted by media reports in April about apartments acquired by them at below-market prices which escalated in a full-blown political scandal leading to the resignations of Tsvetanov, Tsacheva, Koleva, and Purvanov.

The anti-corruption commission has also closed the checks on alerts against former deputy Prime Minister Valeri Simeonov, BSP MPs Elena Yoncheva, Valeri Zhablyanov and Krum Zarkov.