The Bulgarian Supreme Prosecutor's Office of Cassation has sent letters, via the Ministry of Defence, to the US Department of Justice, asking for the information on the basis of which the American authorities have reached their findings regarding the five Bulgarian citizens included in the latest Magnitsky sanctions list, the Bulgarian news agency BTA reports.

• US sanctions Bulgarian officials, firms for corruption, adding them to Magnitsky list

This information is being requested in connection with own-initiative investigations launched by the prosecutor’s office after the US embassy published, on its website, information on 10 February, 2023 that sanctions are being imposed on Bulgarian citizens by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

On 10 February, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned five Bulgarian citizens - Rumen Ovcharov, Aleksandar Nikolov, Ivan Genov, Nikolay Malinov and Vladislav Goranov for “their extensive involvement in corruption in Bulgaria”.