Bulgarian officials arrest two men for a passport scam
October 31, 2018
Two senior Bulgarian officials have been charged with fraud for granting passports, prosecutors said Wednesday. They called it the country's "worst case" of high-level corruption.
The director of the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad, Petar Haralampiev, and the agency's secretary-general, Krasimir Tomov, now face charges of heading "an organized criminal group, corruption and influence peddling," prosecutors said at a news conference.
Haralampiev has been head of the agency, which offers services to the Bulgarian diaspora, since June 2017. Under his tenure, thousands of certificates of Bulgarian ancestry are alleged to have been exchanged for bribes of between 5,000 and 8,000 euros ($5,660 to $9,050). The certificates allowed bribe payers to subsequently obtain Bulgarian and therefore EU passports.
Ethnic Bulgarians targeted
The scheme was aimed at residents of non-EU members Ukraine, Moldova, and Macedonia, all of which have significant minorities of ethnic Bulgarians.
It led to the granting of fake certificates, as well as the illegal fast-tracking of above-board applications. Applicants who paid bribes got their certificates on the same day, while others had to wait for months, prosecutors say.
According to BNR public radio, the scheme led to between 30 and 40 fraudulent passports being issued per week. Deputy General Prosecutor Ivan Geshev said it was "the worst case of corruption in the circles of power that has come to light" in Bulgaria.
The charges come just two weeks before an annual report from the European Commission is due to assess Bulgaria's progress in the fight against corruption — a perennial problem in the EU's poorest country.
Around 10,000 people obtained Bulgarian nationality each year during the period in question.
Passport fraud is endemic
Earlier this year, according to The Washington Post, US officials uncovered a fraud scheme that allowed foreign nationals to enter the country under false identities that were a result of Hungary's passport system.
Meanwhile, the tiny Mediterranean nation of Malta has a legal way for high rollers to acquire an EU passport, but it involves paying €1.1 million ($1.24 million) in fees.
av/msh (Reuters, AFP)