site.btaBucharest Appellate Court Hears EU Fraud Case Against Son of Former Bulgarian Agriculture Minister

A case of fraud with EU funds for EUR 45 million against Ivan Georgiev Tanev (son of former Bulgarian Minister of Agriculture Georgi Tanev) and Sorin Adrian Gazdac (son-in-law of former Romanian Senator Cezar Magureanu) is ongoing at Bucharest Appellate Court, Mediafax reports, adding that the case dates back to 2019. 

In the context of the implementation of an annual food distribution plan for disadvantaged people, financed with EU funds, Romania's Agency for Payments and Intervention in Agriculture concluded two contracts with a Bulgarian company for the purchase of white wheat flour and sunflower oil. The respective contracts were concluded following award procedures through open tenders with online bidding.

The Bulgarian company undertakes to supply 36,250 tonnes of white wheat flour packaged in 1 kg packages and 17,170,070 litres of sunflower oil bottled in 1-litre bottles. Instead, it delivered only 30% of the contracted quantities. The EUR 18,926,709 the company received in advance under the two contracts ended up in the accounts of offshore companies in Cyprus, the Agency said. 

"From the evidence presented in the case, it is clear that the defendants, Bulgarian citizens Ivan Georgiev Tanev and Mila Ivo Georgieva, actually coordinated the company Viem Corporation Food, in which the de jure manager was a man of modest social status named Miloradov. The latter had no knowledge of the company's involvement in the criminal acts investigated in the case. The company was set up in the name of this individual so that in the event of problems in the company, its actual coordinators would not be held responsible," Mediafax noted, citing information from investigators.