Prime Minister Kiril Petkov gave testimony about alleged extortion of gambling tycoon Vassil Bozhkov

Prime Minister Kiril Petkov on April 4 spent more than 2 hours at Sofia City Prosecution Office testifying as a witness for a second questioning in the case of allegations by gambling tycoon Vassil Bozhkov that he had been the victim of extortion by former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and former finance minister Vladislav Goranov.

PM Petkov was summoned for the second time because his first interview was conducted by an investigating police officer, who, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, appeared to be an incompetent authority. The interviews with Boyko Borissov, Vladislav Goranov and Sevdelina Arnaudova were repeated a week ago on the same grounds.

PM Petkov told the Prosecutor's office about more than 550 million leva, for which it becomes evident from a report of the State and Financial Inspection Agency. This, according to PM Petkov, is an amount of money which Vassil Bozhkov did not pay and thus caused losses to the budget.

On the other hand, if his information turns out to be true, which are not yet testimonies, I hope they will be soon, that he gave 60 million levs in the form of bribe and blackmail money, these two facts worry me personally as Prime Minister, Kiril Petkov explained.

The PM also told media he was concerned about another fact related to a report by a Ministry of finance report on the management of EU funds by the auditing agency at the time Valdislav Goranvo was finance minister.

He added that while Goranov was finance minister and in charge of an executive agency auditing EU funds, the agency ignored the concentration of EU funds in a single contractor in many municipalities.

To the media's questions who this contractor of EU projects was, the Prime Minister replied that it was a confidential part of the investigation.

BNT: Was there any difference between your testimony today and the previous ones?

I just went into more detail, Petkov said.

The Prime Minister attacked the Chief Prosecutor again.

As Prime Minister, I have no confidence in Geshev and I would very much like the SJC to do its job and look carefully at the Justice Minister's arguments because to me they clearly show that this Prosecutor General should resign or be dismissed from the post.

According to Kiril Petkov, there are no new defendants in the prosecutor's investigation into possible blackmail of Bozhkov.

Petkov was first questioned in the extortion case by an investigating police officer on March 18, but the Prosecutor’s Office said that that questioning was of no legal value because it should have been conducted by an investigating magistrate. Borissov, Goranov and Sevdelina Arnaudova were also re-questioned on these grounds.

Prime Minister Kiril Petkov interviewed as a witness in alleged extortion case

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