Right of Reply: Investbank Is Not “Bad Apple” Mind the horns!

We publish a letter sent to our editorial office by Investbank as a right of reply, after Bivol’s publication of a letter from the European Commission with information about wrong central bank (Bulgarian National Bank, BNB) data on the interest on State deposits in First Investment Bank (FIB) and Investbank (these are banks with the relatively largest share of State money).

The letter insists that FIB is the only bank that has received State aid in 2014 and 2015; that Investbank has successfully dealt with the banking crisis on its own and that it regularly pays interest to State companies that have deposits in it.

It is further written in the letter that the term “bad apple” used in connection with Investbank and the claims that its majority shareholder Petya Slavova is dependent on other people are untrue and insulting for the Bank, its managers, employees and shareholders. Meanwhile, they are based on only one sentence from the diplomatic cable of former US Ambassador in Sofia, John Beyrle, from nearly nine years ago which is long enough time to disprove such statements, and Ms Slavova owns her success to her personal qualities.

Bivol would like to know the answers of Investbank and personally of its majority shareholder Petya Slavova to the following questions:

– Will there be an official statement of Investbank that it has not signed the letter sent by the Corporate Commercial Bank, Central Cooperative Bank, FIB and Investbank to BNB that calls for sanctions against Bivol because it has published the cables of the American Ambassador on the Bulgarian banking system?

– Will there be a comment of Investbank and Petya Slavova about the suspicious connections of Dimitrinka Lazarova Andreeva, a Member of the Supervisory Board of Investbank representing the interests of the shareholder from Oman Al Shanfari? According to an investigation of Bivol and prestigious Western media, her business links lead to alleged illegal drugs trafficker – lawyer Tsvetan Tsanev, subsequently a credit millionaire. The same, according to an investigation of Bivol’s partners from IRPI, ANCIR, is involved in trafficking of diamonds of Cosa Nostra from Africa to Europe.