Asen Vassilev: The allegations about Dimitrovi’s visits to the Ministry of Finance are an attempt to attack me – Bulgaria

The former Finance Minister Asen Vasilev was heard by the Temporary Parliamentary Commission about the scandal and the arrests in the “Customs” Agency. “These persons – Marin and Stefan Dimitrovi, did not visit the Ministry of Finance (MF). I personally have not met with them,” he told the committee.

Former finance minister Asen Vasilev commented on the allegations made yesterday by the Ministry of Finance that the accused in the affair with the customs, Marin and Stefan Dimitrovi, entered the department at the end of 2023. “This seems to me to be fabricated for two reasons – the head of DANS and the acting minister said that they did not enter. Two days later this appears. This is an attempt to attack me,” Asen Vasilev told the deputies from the parliamentary commission formed on the case.

At the beginning of April, the director of the agency, Petya Bankova, was arrested. According to the investigators, Bankova knew the other two accused of smuggling – Stefan and Marin Dimitrovi. The three are accused of participating in an organized criminal group, money laundering and bribery. During the court session, the testimony of a witness was cited, according to whom Dimitrovi was also acquainted with the former Finance Minister Asen Vasilev.

So far, the commission has heard the acting interior minister Kalin Stoyanov, the finance minister Lyudmila Petkova, the chairman of the National Security State Agency, the former chief secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Petar Todorov and the former interior minister Boyko Rashkov.