June 14 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian banks have restricted their business relations with the local public officials put on a sanction list the US Treasury Department by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) at the US Treasury Department, the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) said.
All commercial banks in Bulgaria with open accounts and business relations with those public officials have already taken the necessary restrictions, including blocking bank accounts and cards, distraint and closing of accounts, the Bulgarian central bank said in a statement on Friday.
"The BNB applies restrictive measures in transactions and operations in accordance with the established internal rules and procedures and the requirements of the Anti-Money Laundering Measures Act," the central bank said.
Some of these measures had been taken on other grounds before the release of the OFAC list, the BNB added.
In addition, the BNB sent to all local banks instructions for additional actions and measures regarding the clients of the banks included in OFAC lists or similar lists of the Bulgarian finance ministry, the BNB said.
Earlier this month, the US Treasury Department said it sanctioned Bulgarian businessman Vassil Bojkov, former MP Delyan Peevski and Ilko 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, for their "extensive roles in corruption in Bulgaria", as well as their networks encompassing 64 entities.
As a result of the sanctions all property and interests in property of the three individuals that are in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons are blocked and must be reported to the OFAC. In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, 50% or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked, the US Treasury Department said at the time.
Shortly after the announcement of the US Treasury Department sanctions, the US State Department banned five Bulgarians from entering the United States due to their involvement in "significant corruption". The persons sanctioned are Bulgaria's former deputy economy minister Alexander Manolev, Petar Haralampiev - former director of the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad, Krasimir Tomov - the former chief secretary of the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad, as well as Delyan Peevski and Zhelyazkov, the State Department said back then.