Following an investigation by the European Prosecutor's Office into possible abuses and money laundering in two projects for the renovation of the Bulgarian railways, two people have been arrested. A message on the website of the prosecutor's office reads that police officers and SANS searched 28 addresses in Sofia, Burgas, Varna, Stara Zagora, Smolyan and Pazardzhik. The suspicions are that euro funds absorbed by the National Railway Infrastructure Company were directed to hollow companies, and subsequently more than 2.5 million euros were withdrawn in cash by persons with previous criminal offences.
The projects in question are related to the reconstruction of railway lines between Sofia, Plovdiv and Burgas, for which more than 240 million euros of European funds have been allocated. Subcontractors are two private companies with international participation.
Bulgarian Transport Minister Georgi Gvozdeikov has ordered that the National Railway Infrastructure Company must fully cooperate into the investigation of the case. In a message to the media, it is stated that the Ministry supports the actions of the European Prosecutor's Office and one of the first steps that Minister Gvozdeikov took was an audit of spent public funds. Speaking to the BNR, a representative of NRIC pointed out that no searches were carried out in the offices of the company, which cooperates fully with the competent authorities in the inspections and claims that it has fulfilled its contractual obligations.
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