We are working on a large-scale regulatory reform to counter property fraud. It is needed in the criminal and civil law spheres to counter fraud. This was stated by the Minister of Justice Georgi Georgiev at the first meeting of an interdepartmental working group to combat property fraud, the press center of the relevant ministry announced.
In addition to the increased number of crimes against the elderly and vulnerable citizens, there are also new worrying cases of attempts to misappropriate attractive properties worth tens of millions of leva using false documents or documents with false content, he added.
The currently envisaged sanctions for such crimes are categorically not sufficient to provide an adequate response to these events, which requires a qualitative reform of the criminal law measures designed to counteract property fraud and related crimes, along with the measures already taken to reorganize the arbitration proceedings, the registration proceedings and others, Georgiev also pointed out.
The minister added that signals are being received about new forms of fraud that are either not covered by the existing criminal codes, or the sanctions provided for their commission are not sufficient to achieve the desired effect. Organized criminal groups operate in the country, which are engaged in increasingly innovative criminal schemes aimed at the illegal acquisition of real estate and the state must be armed with adequate means of counteraction, prevention and punishment, he said.
Georgi Georgiev stressed that he relies, together with law enforcement agencies and various competent institutions, on analyzing the various cases and modernizing Bulgarian criminal law with quick, adequate and effective new solutions to the new forms of criminal activity.
The aim of the working group is to review the existing law, the envisaged penalties and the practice established by the courts in their application, in order to assess what legal changes need to be undertaken. The group also aims for the norms to cover the new forms of property fraud and related crimes and to provide adequate sanctions for their perpetrators. In addition, the working group will study the legislation of other EU member states in order to identify good practices aimed at increasing the security of civil turnover in the disposal of real estate and preventing crimes. The practice of notaries and private bailiffs will be analyzed, the ministry's press center explained, adding that the group includes representatives of the court, the prosecutor's office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Registry Agency, the Chamber of Private Bailiffs, the Notary Chamber, the Cadastre and Cartography Agency, and academic circles.
Restricting the issuance of uncertified copies of notarial acts from the Property Register to persons without a legal interest will be a serious deterrent to attempts at property fraud, Minister Georgiev said at a working meeting to combat property fraud earlier this month.