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2 former Bulgarian intelligence officials accused of embezzlement

Xinhua, January 17, 2017 Adjust font size:

Two former senior Bulgarian intelligence officials have been accused of embezzlement, the Bulgarian prosecutor's office said in a statement on Monday.

The two were Lt. Gen. Kircho Kirov, who was a director of the national intelligence service from February 2003 to January 2012, and an unnamed head of its "leading structural unit".

They were accused of embezzling funds totaling more than 5.1 million lev (3.5 million U.S. dollars at the then exchange rate) between 2007 and 2011, the statement said.

The unnamed officer, whose identity was not revealed for security reasons, prepared money requests for "intelligence" activities and Kirov approved these documents, the statement said.

However, the investigation revealed that the money was requested to cover costs of cases which had been completed and archived several years earlier, "and the two defendants knew this very well," the statement said.

The embezzled money was equal to 22,229 average minimum wages for the period, and the case was very severe with regard to the high position of Kirov at the time of the offense, the statement said.

In 2013, Kirov was accused of having embezzled over 3.1 million U.S. dollars in another case that has not finished court proceedings yet. Endit