Fri, Apr 01 2011 12:45 CET

http://www.sofiaecho.com/2011/04/01/1068798_bulgarian-magistrate-arrested-for-money-laundering

The head of the Bourgas administrative court Atanas Valkov has been arrested and charged with document fraud and money laundering following a covert police operation, the Bulgarian television channel bTV reported on April 1 2011.

Valkov was charged by the authorities following his arrest while negotiating a property sale worth more than two million euro, the report said.

The property, which is on a 12-acre plot of land, near the Bulgarian port town of Nessebar, was obtained by Valkov's mother with falsified documents, while Valkov himself had been managing the sale to a third party. The third party, however, was an undercover officer, media reports said.

The police, however, were on his heels and raided his office where they found evidence of the scam. Valkov has been in charge of the administrative court in Bourgas since its creation in 2007.