US Treasury Dept. sanctions 3 Bulgarians, including gambling tycoon Vassil Bozhkov and former MP Delyan Peevski

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned three Bulgarian individuals for their extensive roles in corruption in Bulgaria, as well as their networks encompassing 64 entities, the US Embassy in Bulgaria announced on June 2.

This action targets Vassil Kroumov Bojkov, a prominent Bulgarian businessman and oligarch; Delyan Slavchev Peevski, a former Member of Parliament; Ilko Dimitrov Zhelyazkov, the former Deputy Chief of the Bulgarian State Agency for Technical Operations who was appointed to the National Bureau for Control on Special Intelligence-Gathering Devices; and the companies owned or controlled by the respective individuals.

These individuals and entities are designated pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13818, which builds upon and implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act and targets perpetrators of serious human rights abuse and corruption around the world, the statement reads.

These sanctions coincide with complementary actions taken by the U.S. Department of State to publicly designate Peevski and Zhelyazkov, among others, under Section 7031(c) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act due to their involvement in significant corruption, it says.

The full text of the statement is availbale here.