site.btaUPDATED GERB Leader Says He Personally Negotiated with UK to Lift Sanctions on Bulgarians Sanctioned for Corruption

GERB leader Boyko Borissov told reporters in Parliament on Wednesday that he had personally discussed with UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron the removal of Bulgarian nationals from the British global anti-corruption sanctions list. He explained that he made efforts "for all Bulgarians who had been unfairly sanctioned".

David Cameron visited Bulgaria in February 2024 while Nikolay Denkov (now MP of Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria) was Prime Minister in a government that also included GERB.

The issue of Bulgarian officials trying to talk the UK into removing Bulgarians - and more specifically MRF - New Beginning leader Delyan Peevski - from their corruption sanctions list, was raised by the opposition in late October. Bozhidar Bozhanov, MP from the opposition We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria, said that Sofia had tried to influence a UK sanctions list targeting Bulgarian individuals when Mariya Gabriel (GERB) was foreign minister in 2023–24. 

The UK sanctions list includes Delyan Peevski, Ilko Zhelyazkov, a former deputy head of the Office for Control of Special Surveillance Means, and disgraced gambling mogul Vassil Bojkov. All of them were designated in October 2023 under the UK Global Anti-Corruption Sanctions Regulations 2021.  

Borissov stated that he considered Delyan Peevski’s inclusion in the list unjust, adding that those responsible for the sale of Bulgarian passports had already been detained.

The UK sanctions for Peevski say that there are "reasonable grounds to suspect that he is responsible for or has engaged in serious corruption, in the form of bribery, on the basis that he intended to induce a public official improperly to perform a public function by directly or indirectly offering or promising an advantage to that official".

Bulgarian individuals, including Peevski, were also designed by the US under the Global Magnitsky Act in 2021, and Borissov said of that that he "was closely involved when the sanctions were first imposed and had met with US representatives, including senior officials, to discuss the issue".

Peevski was designated by the US as an oligarch who "has regularly engaged in corruption, using influence peddling and bribes to protect himself from public scrutiny and exert control over key institutions and sectors in Bulgarian society". Peevski is challenging the designation in a US court. His lawyers argue that there is no evidence of any wrongdoing by their client.

Borissov also said that he had also held numerous talks with former prime minister Kiril Petkov, former finance minister Assen Vassilev, and former Democratic Bulgaria co-chair Hristo Ivanov about possible ways for the sanctions on Peevski to be lifted, adding that at the time, all parties were cooperating actively.

Later on Wednesday, Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) reported that the British Embassy in Bulgaria had responded to Borissov’s remarks by clarifying that the lifting of sanctions was not a matter negotiated by governments, and that none of the individuals sanctioned so far had requested the removal of the restrictions. According to BNR, the embassy’s statement said that no request for the lifting of sanctions had been submitted on behalf of any Bulgarian citizen included in the United Kingdom’s Global Anti-Corruption Sanctions regime, and that the sanctions remain in force.