With a signal to the Supreme Prosecutor's Office, representatives of “Continuing the Change - Democratic Bulgaria” are referring the state prosecution to possible crimes of a general nature committed by the leader of the DPS “New Beginning” Delyan Peevski. They are related to the acquisition and actual possession by him or through proxy persons of a luxury hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which is claimed in media publications and video materials to be owned by the MP. The hotel is not included in Peevski's public declarations under the Anti-Corruption and Forfeiture of Illegally Acquired Property Act (ACAFPA), which raises serious doubts that it was acquired with proceeds of crime and constitutes money laundering. money.
The reason for the report is a material on the website Gospodari.com, which includes a video recording from Dubai and states that, according to the authors, this is a hotel owned by the MP Delyan Peevski, who has been sanctioned for corruption in the UK and the US. The editorial office itself explicitly notes that at the moment it cannot confirm with certainty whether this is indeed his hotel, but the fact of the spread of the claim and the presence of a specific filmed object in a certain district of Dubai constitute information about a possible crime, spread through the media, and therefore - an independent legal reason according to the Criminal Procedure Code for inspection by the prosecutor's office.
The authors of the report indicate that the publication and the video appear against the background of publicly known data about Delyan Peevski's permanent residence and active economic activity in Dubai, including data about flights by private jet to and from Dubai, widely reported in the media, as well as the presence of significant assets in the UAE, related to him, his relatives and controlled by him structures.
The report states that journalistic investigations with the participation of BIRD.BG and OCCRP have already revealed a significant amount of property and corporate connections between Delyan Peevski, his close relatives and partners, and assets in Dubai. They recall that Delyan Peevski's mother - Irena Krasteva, was identified as the owner of a luxury villa in the prestigious Emirate Hills district in Dubai, acquired after 2016. Data has also been published on the UAE-registered company TGI Middle East FZE, which, according to journalistic publications, is controlled by the circle around Peevski, with its assets as of 2017 including real estate worth approximately hundreds of millions of US dollars, without Delyan Peevski having publicly declared such property participation, and the ultimate ownership remains hidden due to registration in a free zone without a public commercial register. It was also revealed that Delyan Peevski himself had a permanent residence permit in Dubai, which raises questions about the center of his vital interests and the source of funds to finance this standard of living.
The whistleblowers recall that Delyan Peevski has been sanctioned by the US Treasury Department under the global “Magnitsky“ Act as “an oligarch who has regularly engaged in corruption, using influence peddling and bribery to shield himself from public scrutiny and to exercise control over key institutions and sectors of Bulgarian society“. In parallel, the United Kingdom has included him in its list under the Global Anti-Corruption Sanctions Regulations 2021, with the official statement of reasons stating that there are “reasonable grounds to suspect“ that Peevski is responsible for or has participated in serious corruption. These official actions by two democratic countries represent a strong international signal that there is a well-founded suspicion of significant illegal income related to Delyan Peevski and his network of related persons and companies. And in the presence of such an international recognized corruption risk, the emergence of new data on possible ownership of a luxury hotel in Dubai, undeclared in Bulgaria, justifies serious suspicion that it concerns concealment and “laundering“ of income of criminal origin by investing them in real estate.
The PP-DB believes that there is potentially data on the following crimes of a general nature: money laundering; declaring false information or failing to submit a declaration; non-payment of taxes for undeclared income and property in particularly large amounts; corruption and trading in influence, if it is established that the means for acquiring and maintaining such assets originate from giving or receiving bribes or from abuse of official position and influence, as described in the sanctions acts of the USA and the United Kingdom.
The authors of the report explicitly emphasize that journalistic publications and investigations are an independent legal reason under the Criminal Procedure Code for initiating an investigation by the prosecutor's office and insist on a full and thorough investigation, including a request for legal assistance from the UAE. They also refer to the case law of the European Court of Human Rights on the need for an effective and comprehensive investigation of serious and well-founded suspicions of organized crime and corruption.