Veselin Denkov is gone and cannot be tried because there is no crime

By a decree of March 2025, Prosecutor Kalin Bliznakov of the Sofia City Court terminated due to lack of evidence the criminal proceedings for participation in an organized criminal group (OPG) for usury and extortion against businessman Veselin Denkov – owner of a chain of Sofia restaurants and a financial house. According to a prosecutor Bliznakov, there was no proven connection between the persons in the alleged group, and witnesses with a secret identity changed their testimony from the pre -trial phase. Their testimony, however, reversed « rumors in society and comments from other persons ».

The criminal proceedings were instituted on August 25, 2020 by the already closed special prosecutor’s office for « Operational Information of the Directorate -General for Combating Organized Crime » (DGBOP) for the existence of an organized criminal group specializing in committing crimes related to illegal banking and acting actions, « AKF recalls.

On the same date, Denkov submitted an official signal to the chairman of the then anti-corruption committee (CPCONPI) and former Attorney General Sotir Tsatsarov after a meeting between the two in the committee four days earlier. The signal states that Denkov has been repeatedly sought by « intermediaries », who are reported to him that he has to pay in order to be left to work in peace, otherwise he is waiting for problems with justice. Denkov refuses to pay.

In the first days of the formation of the investigation, law enforcement agencies are extremely active, with numerous interrogations, searches and seizures. Although he understands from his lawyer that he will be charged and will be detained, Denkov returns to the country on September 1, 2020 and is arrested.

On the charge of participating in an organized criminal group, the businessman remained in custody until June 3, 2021 and was released immediately before the publication of the first part of the « Fast Control List ».

The merits of its detention, including the sufficiency of the evidence collected, has been confirmed several times by the various sections of the already closed special court and appellate special court. The accusatory thesis against Denkov is mainly supported by the testimony of witnesses with a secret identity, many of which give information about his belonging to the alleged organized criminal group of rumors – « I have heard to say that … ».

Although the accusation is to participate in an organized criminal group for usury, in the course of proceedings, a plot is constantly sneaking up that has nothing to do with the subject of the case – investigators are looking for information about the participation of Denkov in the financing of the anti -government protests from the summer of 2020 and the businessman with the searches then Remember from ACF.

In 2021, the investigation was completed and the case was brought for consideration with the special court. By order of February 2025, the Sofia City Court, where the case moved after the closure of the special law, returned it to the City Prosecutor’s Office to eliminate procedural violations that limit the right of the defendants to understand what they were charged with.

Received the case, the prosecutor’s office terminated it in its part of the criminal group alleged by then due to « lack of definite and indisputable evidence » of its existence. Denkov disputes the reasons for terminating the court, which comes to the conclusion not only that there is no evidence of a crime, but that there is no crime at all.

At present, there is no public information from the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office how far the investigation into an organized criminal group has come, which has had an unregulated influence in the judiciary, though days after Bozhanov’s assassination, it was stated that the finale of the investigation was literally coming in the coming days. There is no public information and what is happening with the investigation into Bozhanov’s murder.