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Tsvetan Vasilev (also spelled Tzvetan Vassilev; Bulgarian: Цветан Василев; born 1959) is a former Bulgarian entrepreneur nowadays fugitive from the Bulgarian court. He was indicted for the embezzlement of billions of Corpbank with 17 other accomplices but is now sued in absentia. The reason is that he refuses to stand before the Bulgarian court and hides in Belgrade Reuters reports. Besides being sued in Bulgaria for the Corpbank affair also known as the "Robbery of the century", he is being investigated in Serbia for deliberate bankruptcy of a glass factory in Parachin, financed by Corpbank while the bank was still under the control of Vassilev here. According to the Serbian publication "Blic" Vasilev is being investigated also by the Austrian authorities.

Allegations and Trial

The indictment for the syphoning off of Corporate Commercial Bank was filed by the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office on 20 July 2017, Bulgarian National TV reported here. All copies of the indictment include more than 210,000 pages. 18 persons have been indicted, including Tzvetan Vasssilev who is being sued as the mastermind of the organised crime group whose activity syphoned off the bank. The charges pressed against the convicts exceed 5,000 pages. More than 400 witnesses have been interviewed. Over 90 expert’s reports have been prepared by 27 experts. The collected evidence is in 1,360 volumes. Among the indicted is the former deputy governor of Bulgaria’s central bank (BNB), Tzvetan Gounev, along with the former CEOs of the bank.

Years of Bloom

Vasilev is former chairman of the supervisory board of Corporate Commercial Bank AD, the fifth bank in Bulgaria based on assets, which collapsed after a bank run in 2014.^[1] as well as its majority shareholder.^[2]
Tsvetan Vasilev is also former chairman of the supervisory board of Victoria FATA Insurance^[3] as well as the supervisory board of Vivacom, a Bulgarian telecom company.^[4] Vasilev is the recipient of the badge of honor of the University of National and World Economy in Sofia^[5] and Doctor Honoris Causa of the "St Ivan Rilski" University of Mining and Geology.^[6]

In July 2017, Bulgaria's prosecution indicted Vasilev with embezzlement.^[7] Since September 2014, Vasilev has been living in exile in Serbia where he faces extradition proceedings ^[8] and investigation for deliberate bankruptcy ^[9]

Education

Tsvetan Vasilev holds a master's degree in International Economic Relations from the University of National and World Economy. After graduation, he worked as a research fellow in economics at the Center of Foreign Trade and International Markets for seven years.^[10]

Early career

Tsvetan Vasilev started his career in finance in 1992 when he founded his brokerage company Bromak EOOD^[11] and his investment intermediary Fina-S AD.^[12] Between 1995 and 1999 he headed the Foreign Exchange Operations and Liquidity Department of Central Cooperative Bank, and in 1997 he also became member of the bank's board of directors. In 1999 he left Central Cooperative Bank to head the Markets and Liquidity Department at CB Bulgaria Invest (now Allianz Bulgaria Commercial Bank).

Corporate Commercial Bank ("Corpbank")

Between 2000 and 2003, Vasilev served as chairman of the executive board and executive director of Corporate Commercial Bank AD. In 2003 he became its majority shareholder and chairman of its supervisory board.^[13]

Entrepreneurial and innovative investments

By 2014, Corpbank was Bulgaria’s fourth-largest bank.^[14] The bank held an extensive portfolio of companies and was the only bank in Bulgaria investing in start-ups and entrepreneurs. Because the bank was making these types of investments that no other banks were doing, its profits and regional power grew. Until its destruction by Bulgarian regulators and the looting of its assets, Corpbank was arguably the most innovative and entrepreneurial bank in the Balkans.

Starting from scratch in 2001, it was a pioneer in export financing to Bulgarian energy producers and ammunition manufacturers previously without banking options. Unlike its rivals, Corpbank also made direct investments in its clients and emerging enterprises in Bulgaria, most notably the country's leading telecom Vivacom, which it bought from creditors along with affiliates of VTB Capital in 2012.^[15][16] Vivacom is the leading market provider in Bulgaria for a variety of telecommunications services, including landline, mobile, Internet, radio, and TV. It has approximately 3,500 employees.^[17] Vassilev saw the opportunity and raised the capital to make the purchase.^[17]

Experts claim that the Vivacom deal was amidst the most complicated ones on the Bulgarian financial market.^[18] The restructuring was approved by the European Commission and the international creditors of Vivacom.^[19][20] Prior to the acquisition by Vasilev and VTB Capital, Vivacom had incurred significant debt after a buyout by AIG in 2007, which subsequently sold its shares to PineBridge Investments.^[21]

The company's 2013 financial report showed considerable improvement: EBITDA increased from BGN 267 million to BGN 339 million.^[22]

"Sudden" run on the bank

Because of its growth, wealth, and power, in April 2014 one of the most influential political parties in Bulgaria (DPS) visited Vassilev. The request was simple: transfer assets for free to the "mobster circle of DPS." Vassilev refused.

Suddenly, by June and July 2014, Corpbank customers withdrew cash in a panic. Prior to the bank run, several Bulgarian media outlets ran stories accusing Vassilev of trying to organize the murder of a media titan who had close connections to the government, Delyan Peevski. Prosecutors raided companies affiliated with Corpbank. They confiscated financial documents from those companies. TV stations ran live feeds of the prosecution's raids. Over the course of 4 days, over 20 percent of Corpbank's assets were withdrawn in cash by depositors.^[23]

After the bank run, Corpbank was closed for six months. Customers could not get money out. The Bulgarian government's currency board denied the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) from creating money to pay Corpbank's customers. According to Forbes, "Paying off depositors was therefore impossible. But reopening the bank was not an option either since that would simply re-start the run. Therefore, the BNB kept the bank "on ice".^[23]

Bank collapse and shutdown

In late 2014, the bank collapsed which caused the largest financial crisis in Bulgaria since the 1990s. Bulgaria’s central bank, Bulgarian National Bank, then took control over the bank. Corpbank was officially shut down and its assets taken over by the Bulgarian National Bank in July 2014. According to media reports at that time, the shutdown was due to a dispute between Vassilev and "Bulgarian media oligarch Delyan Peevski."^[23]

Civil and criminal charges

In March 2016, the Bulgarian government (through the Commission for Illegal Assets Forfeiture (CIAF)) filed a lawsuit against Vassilev as the main shareholder of Corpbank. The lawsuit accuses Vassilev of using bank money to personally acquire assets and property. The government’s lawsuit seeks 2.2 billion leva, which is equivalent to $1.3 billion US dollars.^[14] Vassilev blames the failure of the bank on a plot hatched by his competitors and the government, ultimately to gain control over the wealthy telecommunications company Vivacom.^[14] In December 2016, Bulgarian and Swiss courts froze over 600 million levs of Vassilev’s money.^[14]

The government is also going after Vassilev and his wife, charging both with money laundering. His wife is a university professor.^[24]

After spending some time in Austria, Vasilev is currently residing in Belgrade, Serbia (he voluntarily surrendered to Serbian police officers on 16 September 2014). In March 2015, the Appellate Court of Belgrade ruled against an extradition request by the Bulgarian authorities.^[25]

"Delyan Peevski is simply one of the main tools that the Bulgarian political mafia uses to blackmail Bulgarian business—the visible part of a rather large iceberg of corruption," Vassilev said in a Forbes interview. "The political mafia is persistently trying to downgrade what happened to Corpbank to a personal conflict between Mr. Peevski and me, which is utterly untrue. I had a conflict with the political mafia ruling the country, which has been blackmailing and threatening me for many years."^[26]

After inexplicably modifying charges several times, in July 2017 Bulgaria's prosecution indicted Vasilev with embezzlement along with 17 other people.^[27] According to Reuters, the case is "seen as one of the Balkan nation’s biggest post-communist fraud investigations".
^[28] Vasilev, however, argues that the charges are political.^[29] He has submitted applications against Bulgaria before the European Court of Human Rights.^[30] In August 2017, he also submitted an application under the US Magnitsky Act, which sanctions corrupt government officials implicated in human rights abuses, against Bulgaria's General Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov and media mogul and Member of Parliament Delyan Peevski.^[31]

Corpbank's assets after the forced shutdown

After Corpbank's shutdown, insolvency proceedings were officially initiated. Corpbank's clients, however, repeatedly warned that Bulgaria's authorities were violating the creditors' interests.^[32] Media reported that assets were deviated by companies and persons allegedly affiliated with Delyan Peevski and the witnesses against Vasilev.^[33][34][35]

Vasilev also argues that Bulgarian authorities close their eyes to irregularities in the insolvency proceedings. He was concerned about the fate of Corpbank's strategic assets, such as Vivacom. In particular, VTB Capital controlled 33% of Vivacom through their daughter company Crusher even though they were not the true owner as the price of the shares had already been paid by Corpbank's SPV Technological Center-Institute for Microelectronics (TC-IME).^[36] In murky circumstances, the shares of Vivacom were sold by VTB Capital at a devalued rate at a tender in London to Bulgarian Spas Rousev in September 2016.^[37] There is pending litigation before the London High Court for allegedly illegal seizure of the equity stake in Vivacom.^[38] Vasilev has raised concern that Vivacom's new owners would probably fail to pay the company's debt to Corpbank and would hurt the interests of the creditors in the insolvency proceedings.^[36] It has been suggested that Spas Rousev is a strawman of Delyan Peevski.^[39]

In the past, Vasilev had tried to strike a deal with a Belgian investor who was supposed to find financing for Vivacom's debt towards Corpbank, but it fell through.^[40][41]

Citizenship

Tsvetan Vasilev is Doctor Honoris Causa of the “St. Ivan Rilski” University of Mining and Geology. He is also recipient of the Honorary Badge of the University of National and World Economy and a member of the university’s board of trustees.^[42] He has authored a number of publications analyzing the financial challenges before Bulgaria and the European Union.^{[43][44][45][46]}

Vasilev is a frequent guest of various international economic forums, such as the Wroclaw Global Forum^[47] and the Black Sea Energy and Economic Summit.^[48][49]

Vasilev has sponsored many initiatives in various fields, including scientific research, development of sports, support of orphanages, renovation of churches and monasteries, etc.^{[50][51][52][53][54][55][56]}

He is the main benefactor of PFC Botev Plovdiv, the oldest football club in Bulgaria.^[57] Vasilev’s efforts are concentrated on the development of the football club and its junior football academy.^[58]

Awards

Tsvetan Vasilev has received a number of prestigious awards. He has been the recipient of The Banker newspaper "Banker of the Year" award for his personal contributions to the Bulgarian economy and banking several times:

• Award for Dynamic Banking Management as Chairman of the Management Board of Corporate Commercial Bank AD in 2004^[59]
  


• Award for Promoting Bulgarian Capital in Bulgaria’s Banking System in 2008^[60]
  


• Market Stability Special Award in 2010^[61]
  


• Award for Efficient Policy and Long-Lasting Presence on the Bulgarian Market in 2013^[62]
  

In 2011 he received the Mr. Economy award (the grand award of the Economics magazine in Bulgaria)^[63] for overall contribution to the development of the Bulgarian economy.^[64][65] In 2012 Vasilev received an award for his overall contribution to the development of motorcycle sports in Bulgaria by the Bulgarian Motorcycle Federation.^[51]

Personal life

Tsvetan Vasilev is married to Professor Antoaneta Vassileva, Dean of the International Economics and Politics Faculty of the University of National and World Economy.

See also

• Corporate Commercial Bank


• Vivacom

References

External links

• 
  An Individual Approach, An Interview with Tzvetan Vassilev, Chairman, Corporate Commercial Bank, Leaders Magazine, October 2011 (in English)
  


• 
  Vassilev: Energy and Economic Co-operation Key to Black Sea Region Growth, New Europe, November 2011 (in English)
  


• 
  Banker Tzvetan Vassilev: Bulgaria's President Defends Business Interests, Standartnews, 26 March 2013 (in English)
  


• 
  Tzvetan Vassilev’s Articles for New Europe (in English)
  


• 
  GERB's Ambitions to Govern Bulgaria are Not to be Taken Seriously, Pressadaily.bg, 3 August 2013 (in Bulgarian)
  


• Nikolay Stoyanov, „The state KTB (The usage of the bank for concentration of capital, property and power is dangerous and illegal)“, „Капитал“, 29 March 2013 (in Bulgarian)
  


• 
  Interview with Tzvetan Vassilev, Deutsche Welle, October 2013 (in Bulgarian)
  


• 
  “For Whom the Bell Tolls and is There Something Rotten in Brussels?,” Analysis by Tzvetan Vassilev, New Europe, January 2014 (in English)
  


• 
  Bulgarians are Not the Biggest Danger, Interview with Tzvetan Vassilev, Handelsblatt, January 2014 (in German)