The Prosecutor's Office on March 10 issued a statement regarding allegations against the suspended Bulgarian European Prosecutor Teodora Georgieva. The statement emphasises that the tendentious dissemination of unsubstantiated and defamatory claims not only damages the reputation of individual magistrates but also undermines the authority of the judiciary as a whole.
The Prosecutor's Office noted that information concerning a corruption investigation involving Georgieva was requested by the European Chief Prosecutor Laura Kövesi, and they published the exchanged correspondence.
In spring of the previous year, Bulgaria’s Permanent Representation in Brussels, via the Ministry of Justice, forwarded a letter from Kövesi to the acting Prosecutor General requesting full information regarding alleged corruption involving Bulgarian European Prosecutor Teodora Georgieva.
In her letter, European Chief Prosecutor Laura Kövesi noted that as early as autumn 2023, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office received a report from a private individual alleging corruption involving European Prosecutor Teodora Georgieva and several prosecutors in Bulgaria.
The letter also references a video published in Bulgarian media on 10 March 2025, showing Georgieva meeting with a person known as Petyo – “Evroto”. According to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, Evroto is the individual alleged to have provided bribes to Georgieva.
Information on the Georgieva case has been requested in writing in order to provide data on the administrative investigation being carried out in the European Public Prosecutor's Office against Teodora Georgieva and to ensure that the confidentiality of this information will be guaranteed, according to the rules of the European Public Prosecutor's Office.
Borislav Sarafov replied to European Chief Prosecutor Laura Kövesi by forwarding a report from the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office, which confirms that a review of the circulated recording has been conducted.
A pre-trial investigation has been opened into a potential corruption offence covering the period from early 2020 to March 2025, involving a public official who has held the positions of judge at the Sofia Administrative Court and European Prosecutor in the European Public Prosecutor’s Office — the roles occupied by Teodora Georgieva during that time.
The report specifies that that the recording is from a meeting between Petyo Petrov - Evroto and Teodora Georgieva, which took place on 13 March 2020, when the procedure for the election of the European Public Prosecutor from Bulgaria took place.
According to the report, statements from three witnesses were cited. They indicate that Teodora Georgieva frequently visited the restaurant “Osemtte Dzhudzheta” ("Eight Dwarfs") both before and after 2020. She was received by Petyo Petrov – “Evroto” in the so-called VIP room, to which access was highly restricted.
Witness 1 stated that, on Petrov’s instructions, he counted various sums of money and placed them into envelopes according to a list for different individuals. One of the names on the list was Georgieva, with 10,000 leva written against her name. The witness also confirmed the authenticity of the circulated video recording.
Witness 2, a security guard at the venue, said he had repeatedly received Georgieva and escorted her to the VIP room.
Witness 3, a female employee, claimed she prepared 10,000 leva envelopes for Georgieva, which were delivered on the 25th of each month, mirroring the payroll schedule in Petrov’s company. The report also quotes Petrov as having said after one of the meetings with Georgieva: “I am Pepi Evroto, and she is now Tedi Evroto.”
In a statement to the programme “Po sveta i u nas” on Bulgarian National Television, Teodora Georgieva said that the announcement released by the Prosecutor's Office of Bulgaria confirms the accuracy of the information she previously submitted in a report to the Ministry of Justice of Bulgaria.
In the report, Georgieva accuses acting Prosecutor General, Borislav Sarafov, of committing an abuse of office by fabricating documents.
According to Georgieva, the statement of the Prosecutor's Office confirms that the evidence presented against her in the corruption case has been manipulated, and demonstrates that she has been subjected to pressure.
Teodora Georgieva, Suspended European Prosecutor:
“In practice, with the information he released, he confirmed and provided additional details that I did not previously have. There is complete chaos here in the legal framework. I do not know these individuals and have never seen them; these are defamatory claims — statements written under the dictation of Borislav Sarafov. In fact, he is showing that he misled the European prosecutors — he promised to send them certain records, fabricated them, and then sent them.” — said Teodora Georgieva.
Caretaker Justice Minister Calls for Broader Transparency in “Eight Dwarfs” Investigations
The caretaker Justice Minister, Andrey Yankulov, also issued a statement on the matter. In it, he praised the transparency demonstrated by the Prosecutor's Office of Bulgaria but urged that a similar approach be applied to all investigations linked to the so-called “Eight Dwarfs” network, including cases involving other magistrates.
Yankulov also questioned why Teodora Georgieva has not been formally charged, given that investigators appear to have concluded there is sufficient evidence to suggest a possible connection to a corruption offence.
He further noted that it remains unclear why, in the published correspondence, both the case number of the investigation and the name of the supervising prosecutor are hidden in the circulated correspondence.
European Public Prosecutor’s Office Finds Teodora Georgieva Guilty, Seeks Her Dismissal
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