Corpbank Siphoning Off Trial Began

The court case of the Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank) siphoning off began on 9^th of May. At 10.00 am, all defendants and their defence lawyers appeared in the court room.

The trial is being conducted in the absence of Corpbank main shareholder Tzvetan Vassilev, who is in Serbia, and awaits the decision of the Serbian authorities regarding his extradition.

The trial began with a scandal. The court asked everyone in the room to be standing while the indictment is read. However, it includes 5,000 pages and will take days until it is read. This provoked a reaction by the defence, followedby exchange of statements. Eventually, the court reconsidered and the people again had the opportunity to sit in their seats.

Minutes later, the head of the specialised prosecutor’s office decided to leave the court room. He told journalists that lawyers were deliberately delaying the trial, and there was a way to avoid reading the indictment as it has been published on the website of the prosecutor’s office and has been accessible for more than a year.

The prosecution claims they have evidence of pressure on witnesses. It became clear that magistrates were also being investigated. Also, an investigation has been launched in one of Tzvetan Vassilev's lawyers. There is information that he has received 200,000 BGN for tampering of a key witness.

Ivan Geshev, Head of the Specialized Prosecutor's Office said that a strategy for pressure on witnesses ws unfolding. “Legal, semi-legal, illegal… any means are used. Threats of murder against one or two witnesses in the case. Court cases are filed by other witnesses in the case, who are from the circle of Tsvetan Vassilev.

We have yet to see how long the reading of the indictment will actually take. More than 400 witnesses will be questioned in the case.