site.btaInterior Ministry Launches Special Unit to Fight Money Laundering

The Interior Ministry would create a Specialized Operational Group to tackle money laundering, Interior Minister Daniel Mitov said on Friday during a meeting with US Embassy Chargé d’Affaires H. Martin McDowell and the US Embassy security team, the Interior Ministry press service said. 

Yavor Serafimov, Deputy Director of the General Directorate National Police, will head the group, which will include officers from the General Directorate National Police, the Directorate General for Combating Organized Crime (DGCOC), and other Bulgarian agencies.

"Improving the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing, as well as removing Bulgaria from the grey list of the Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism (Moneyval), are among the priorities of the Interior Ministry set out in the Zhelyazkov Cabinet's programme," Mitov said. He added that he believes the group’s formation in this field was a first step that would significantly improve the quality of investigations and support the government's priorities.

The main topic discussed at the meeting was the US model for such investigative groups, which brings together representatives from various law enforcement agencies.

“The model for Specialized Operational Groups, established by our US partners for almost 50 years, delivers very good results. I had the opportunity to study it in detail during my visit to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Drug Enforcement Administration headquarters in Washington in June. I now rely on our excellent cooperation with Chargé d'Affaires McDowell and the embassy team, so we can successfully implement this model in Bulgaria,” Mitov said at the meeting.

Yavor Serafimov and Dimitar Kitanov, Deputy Directors of the General Directorate National Police and the Directorate General for Combating Organized Crime (DGCOC), also took part in the meeting.

BTA notes that Bulgaria was placed on the "grey list" of countries under enhanced monitoring due to insufficient measures and unsatisfactory evaluations of key recommendations from the MONEYVAL Committee. The "grey list" names "jurisdictions under increased monitoring." Such jurisdictions are actively working with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to address strategic deficiencies in their regimes to counter money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing. On July 2, the Council of Ministers approved the third and final legislative package with changes needed for Bulgaria to be removed from the list.