Apr.16, 2010

Five of the 16 people who were busted Thursday by the Bulgarian police in “The Untouchable” Operation have been charged with money laundering.

Three of the detainees, who have sizable criminal records, have been left in the arrest for 72 hours; the other two have been released on bail.

The other 11 people who were interrogated after being arrested by the police have been freed as the investigators have not found enough evidence to raise charges against them. One of the busted men was singer Krasimir Avramov, Bulgaria’s 2009 Eurovision Song Contest participant, whose home was broken into by the commandos by mistake.

The five “Untouchable” gangsters have been charged with taking part in an organized crime group dealing with money laundering and tax evasion.

Chief Secretary of the Interior Ministry Kalin Georgiev has explained that the police together with the State National Security Agency DANS and the Prosecutor’s Office will be digging deeper into the evidence against the alleged gangsters.

In his words, at this point the policemen could only guess what sort of losses the gang incurred to the state budget – from a few million to a few dozen million BGN.

When asked about the connection of the detainees with Bulgarian energy tycoon Hristo Kovachki, Georgiev replied, “It is one thing knowing certain information, it is a different thing proving it. We are working on that.”

On Thursday, Interior Minister Tsvetanov announced that some of “The Untouchable” were close to Kovachki who has big interests in the energy business. The head of the National Revenue Agency, Krasimir Stefanov explained that there is an investigation of potential accomplices of the gangsters among the tax agents.

Bulgaria's Interior Ministry said Friday night that it was continuing "The Untouchable" operation in the Pernik District to the west of Sofia.