Weekly Briefing, Vol. 63. No. 3 (BG) June 2023
Evidence of a Scheme for Corruption, Extortion and Influence Peddling in the Bulgarian Judicial System
Summary
A few weeks ago, The Anti-Corruption Fund, which is an expert non-governmental organization working to prevent, expose and investigate corruption at all levels in the country, published an interview with Lyubena Pavlova, ex-wife of Peter Petrov, nicknamed “the Euro”, a lawyer and former head of the Metropolitan Investigation Service. She is also one of the main persons in an investigation that became known as the “Eight Dwarfs”, which the Anti-Corruption Fund published three years ago. It is a matter of confessions and evidences that reveal an influence-peddling scheme in the Bulgarian judiciary and judicial system, in which senior magistrates, prosecutors, investigators, judges, as well as senior police officers are involved. In her interviews, Petar Petrov’s ex-wife reveals details of the criminal scheme. At the same time, the prosecutor’s office declared Petrov a national and international wanted man and charged him in influence peddling and conducting illegal surveillance and wiretapping.
According to the Bulgarian Criminal Code, trading in influence is a crime in which the perpetrator asks for or accepts a gift or any benefit that is not due to him, or accepts an offer or promise of a gift or benefit in order to influence the decision-making of an official person in connection with his service. Trading in influence is a crime that can be committed by any person who has any tool to influence officials or people making certain decisions in local or state administration.
In recent years, this type of crime has become one of the main social problems, and the fight against it is extremely difficult due to the fact that this type of crime is difficult to prove.[1]
The fact that publications related to similar scandals and cases of corruption and influence peddling in the highest levels of state and judicial power are increasingly appearing in the Bulgarian media is particularly worrying.
One of these scandalous cases is related to the personality of the former director of the Metropolitan Investigation Service Petar Petrov, known by the nickname Petyo “the Euro”.
Petar Petrov began his career in the justice system as a prosecutor, after which he first became the deputy director of the Metropolitan Investigation Service, and from 2013 to 2015 he was already the director of the Metropolitan Investigation. He left the leadership post in February 2015 due to corruption scandals.
His name and that of his then-wife Lyubena Pavlova made headlines about three years ago during the investigation of the Anti-Corruption Fund. The case became known as the “Eight Dwarfs”. This was the name of the couple’s restaurant where extortion and influence peddling took place, the purpose of which was to use the judicial system to influence lawsuits, to influence investigations, to detain people, to steal businesses etc.[2]
However, Petrov’s name was covered with infamy long before that. Over the years, various people have accused Petar Petrov of corruption, racketeering, extortion, coercion, threats, sabotage of justice, etc. However, none of these allegations have been investigated to the point of being proven in a court of law.
In 2022, the investigation of the so called “Eight Dwarfs” case of the former investigator Petyo Petrov “ the Euro“ reached the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. This happened after a complaint by one of the victims of the alleged criminal network.
This happened after a year and eight months since the initial publications of the Anti-Corruption Fund, the Bulgarian authorities did not provide an adequate institutional response to the specific data presented in the “Eight Dwarfs” investigation about undue influence to settle legal conflicts, attempts to seize business through the involvement of the law enforcement authorities and the illegal disposition of the prosecutor’s office with seized physical evidence of great value.[3]
Three weeks ago, the prosecutor’s office officially announced that Petyo „the Evro“ was wanted and charged in for the fact that from 2018 to May 29, 2023, in Sofia, various people were forced, through threats, to act against their will. The prosecutor’s office is also investigating illegal recordings made by Petrov of various persons with the aim of using the recordings as a means of racketeering.[4]
The announcement of the charges brought against Petar Petrov coincided with an interview of his already ex-wife Lyubena Pavlova published by the Anti-Corruption Fund. They divorced some time ago, now she has decided to testify that her husband organized a corruption scheme involving active prosecutors whom he motivated to do him favors with money, apartments, cars, threats, blackmail and promises of career promotion.
Pavlova describes the influence-peddling and extortion scheme run by her ex-husband as a “marketplace of futures” – career, financial and everything else. Petrov’s influence on the judicial system and the leverage he has to influence the development of court cases, prosecutor’s investigations and human destinies are due to a system of corruption and racketeering of magistrates, Pavlova confirmed in her interview. According to her, certain people from the judicial system were on a “subscription” in Petrov’s restaurant, in addition to the salary from the state, they also received a salary from Perer Petrov, in exchange for other services they did for him.[5]
The amount of this second salary varied and depended on the person. Some left with BGN 2,000, others with BGN 5,000, 10,000 or 20,000, she said. Among the visitors of the restaurant there were all kinds of people – judges, prosecutors and investigators, as well as policemen. According to her, members of the Supreme Judicial Council of Bulgaria also came there, who also participated in the influence peddling scheme.
At the same time, Lyubena Pavlova confirms that all the magistrates who came to the Petyo „the Euro“ restaurant were secretly and illegally photographed and recorded, so that the recordings and photographs could then be used as a means of racketeering and pressure.[6]
It is curious the moral assessment that Pavlova gives to these people, coming to illegally receive money from Petrov with the clear awareness that this is criminal, violating any principles of proper behavior by a magistrate and a public official, becoming Petrov’s hostages. “Not all of them were corrupt, there were decent people among them,” says Lubena Pavlova. According to her, some of them are people with problems, with sick relatives, while others want to develop a career in order to be able to feed their children.[7]
The ex-investigator’s influence in the judiciary, his ex-wife attributes to his 20 years of experience as a magistrate in the justice system, as well as to the fact that he has incriminating material on many people or bribes others with money. According to her, many people and many magistrates used to come to the now already closed restaurant “Eight Dwarfs”, who received large sums of money, apartments, cars or assistance for career promotion. Other people have been threatened and extorted through Petar Petrov’s possession of embarrassing personal videos and evidence of corruption.[8]
The news information shows that Lubena Pavlova has already testified also before the prosecutors, although since 2018 she had a key role in the network of influence created by her ex-husband. Obviously in an attempt to defend herself, she handed over to investigators hundreds of videos showing Petyo “the Euro” handing bags of money to police officers, magistrates and politicians who visited the restaurant.
Conclusion
Over the years, Peter Petrov has been repeatedly described in the public space as a person for whom the law does not set special limits, and the lack of evidence is not an obstacle to the initiation of an investigation. In the words of Petrov’s ex-wife – Lyubena Pavlova, Petrov often used to say that “If we don’t have evidence, we will bring it.”[9]
Last but not least, in the interviews given by Lyubena Pavlova, she states that the former deputy chief prosecutor and director of the National Investigation Service Borislav Sarafov, who is currently the acting chief prosecutor of Bulgaria, is a close family friend of Petar Petrov and is basically defending his interests.[10]
An year ago the former investigator Petyo “theEvro” was named also by the Prime Minister Kiril Petkov as one of the main actors of corruption in Bulgaria and entered his name in the list of 19 people he handed over to Chief Prosecutor of the Republic of Bulgaria. [11]
At this moment, Petеr Petrov has not yet been found, but he has been declared wanted by Interpol and the Schengen Information System as well. According to information from the Bulgarian National Television, which has not yet been officially confirmed, Petyo “the Euro” may already be in Dubai, as he left the country through Turkey, and it is assumed that the direction of the former investigator was the United Arab Emirates.[12]
Together with the former head of the Metropolitan investigation, his child – from his marriage with Lyubena Petrova – also left the country. It is not known how the child crossed the border, given that Lubena Petrova states that she did not sign a declaration of consent. Suspicions also appeared in the media about an “inside person” in the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who had warned Petrov about the impending charges against him, as well as about the action to arrest him. Former Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev also confirmed that an internal investigation had been launched in the Ministry.
The story of the small capital restaurant “Eight Dwarfs” becomes an emblematic example of a scheme to carry out influence peddling in the judicial system. The stated facts about this are more than shocking for the Bulgarians. The public has been shaken by testimonies that extortions are organized there, investigations are arranged against innocent people in order to intimidate them, arrests of people are arranged, and businesses are even stolen with influence on judges of the Commercial Courts and Courts of Appeal.
[1] https://www.mzh.government.bg/odz-montana/Libraries/%D0%91%D1%8E%D0%BB%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B8/Pytevoditel.sflb.ashx
[2] https://acf.bg/bg/osemte-dzhudzheta-novo-razsledvane-2/
[3] https://www.segabg.com/hot/category-bulgaria/osemte-dzhudzheta-poluchiha-burza-pista-suda-strasburg
[4] https://nova.bg/news/view/2023/05/31/413745/%D0%BE%D1%84%D0%B8%D1%86%D0%B8%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%BD%D0%BE-%D0%BE%D0%B1%D1%8F%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%85%D0%B0-%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%82%D1%8C%D0%BE-%D0%B5%D0%B2%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%BE-%D0%B7%D0%B0-%D0%BE%D0%B1%D1%89%D0%BE%D0%B4%D1%8A%D1%80%D0%B6%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%BD%D0%BE-%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%B4%D0%B8%D1%80%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B5/
[5] https://acf.bg/bg/osemte-dzhudzheta-otvatre-intervyu-s-3/
[6] https://acf.bg/bg/osemte-dzhudzheta-otvatre-intervyu-s-3/
[7] Ibidem.
[8] Ibidem.
[9] Ibidem.
[10] Ibidem.
[11] https://bird.bg/en/lyubena-petrova-closes-ritz-in-thessaloniki/
[12] https://news.bg/crime/petyo-evroto-veche-e-v-dubay.html