June 2 (SeeNews) - The US Treasury Department said it sanctioned on Wednesday 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 U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the US Treasury Department said. In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, 50% or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked.
Unless authorised by a general or specific license issued by OFAC, or otherwise exempt, OFAC’s regulations generally prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of designated or otherwise blocked persons. The prohibitions include the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any blocked person or the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person, the US Treasury Department added.
These sanctions coincide with complementary actions taken by the US Department of State to publicly designate Peevski and Zhelyazkov, among others, due to their involvement in significant corruption, the statement reads.
"The corrupt activities undertaken by the individuals designated today demonstrate how pervasive corruption goes hand-in-hand with other illicit activity. [...] Today’s designation exposes Bojkov, Peevski, and Zhelyazkov for abusing public institutions for profit and cuts off these individuals’ and their companies’ access to the U.S. financial system," the US Treasury Department said.
The designations constitute the largest Global Magnitsky action taken on a single day in the history of the programme, the department noted.