{"id":24804,"date":"2014-11-29T20:45:19","date_gmt":"2014-11-29T20:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/?p=24804"},"modified":"2014-11-30T14:35:06","modified_gmt":"2014-11-30T14:35:06","slug":"bulgarian-bad-apples-banks-now-on-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/bulgarian-bad-apples-banks-now-on-tv.html","title":{"rendered":"Bulgarian \u201cBad Apples\u201d Banks Now on TV"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Friday, November 28, in its political talk show \u201cThis Morning\u201d, bTV aired a report by journalist Stoyan Georgiev on the drain of failed private lender Corporate Commercial Bank (KTB or CCB), extensively quoting a classified diplomatic cable of former US Ambassador in Sofia, John Beyrle, on Bulgarian “bad apples” banks \u201cfunneling money for known criminals in money laundering schemes and involved in connected lending\u201d. Their names were spared, except for KTB.<\/p>\n

The report was first published by Bivol – Bulgarian partner of Wikileaks – in June 2011, with deleted names of informants of the Ambassador. Such were the publishing guidelines and our commitment under a contract with Julian Assange – not to endanger persons who are not in power and shield them from political and economic attacks over their contacts with the US embassy.<\/p>\n

Two days later the report was quoted on second page in the French Le Monde. In Bulgarian media, however, there was total taboo to mention such a document and it lasted for a long time. Moreover, a slanderous attack was launched against the editor of the website Atanas Tchobanov, personally orchestrated by the head of the PR of First Investment Bank (FIB).<\/p>\n

Several months later, all US cables leaked without deletions of names and those who were interested learned that the informant of Ambassador Beyrle was the then-director of financial intelligence Dr. Vasil Kirov, now working in OLAF.<\/p>\n

Bivol then published the full text of the cable and was threatened by the Bulgarian central bank (Bulgarian National Bank \u2013BNB) with a huge fine under the Lending Institutions Act over a complaint of four of the \u201cbad apples\u201d – FIB, Investbank, KTB and Central Cooperative Bank (CCB). After strong international support \u2013 reaction of Reporters Without Borders and a publication in the US Forbes \u2013 the central bank abandoned its intentions and resorted to silence. However, BNB refused to give to Bivol the letter with the complaint of the four “bad apples” banks.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the “bad apples” were announced in a prestigious media study as \u201ctaboo topic\u201d in Bulgarian media.<\/p>\n

All these facts are particularly known to the readers of the site and to the journalists\u2019 guild. And it is not at all ethical and collegial on the part of bTV to skip them and to display the cable as some last minute discovery.<\/p>\n

After death the doctor<\/strong> or keeping the upcoming outbreak in mind?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The good news is that three years later, the taboos finally began to be lifted and led to displaying Ambassador Beyrle\u2019s cable on TV. Paragraphs on lending to connected parties were cited; Dr. Vassil Kirov\u2019s battle with political factors and even with BNB which, according to him, was not sufficiently vigilant against harmful practices was mentioned as well. We all know what this institutional policy eventually led to – a major banking crisis.<\/p>\n

Some will say that this is hindsight, but we argue that it is better than continuing silence because the informed choice is an important one. Anyone can read the original cable on the site of Wikileaks or translated by Bivol and see that not only KTB is a “bad apple”.<\/p>\n

The inquisitive reader will learn the names of the other \u201cbad apples\u201d that still have the same owners – CCB owned by the “criminal group TIM” (according to a cable of another former US Ambassador \u2013 James Pardew), Investbank and International Asset Bank.<\/p>\n

And of course FIB, which now survives with State aid. Ambassador Beyrle dedicated the most extensive report on it – \u201cit is known as one of the most aggressive and “polished” banks as well as one in the murkier criminal realm.\u201d<\/p>\n

The collapse of the CCB was preceded by numerous alarming publications about its huge exposures to connected parties and to fictitious companies, which led to its drain without the banking supervision noticing anything. The depositors and the taxpayers are the victims in this case and this is a situation very accurately described in the \u201cbad apples\u201d cable.<\/p>\n

\u201cConnected lending continues to be a problem among some banks as their owners funnel money to related – less competitive – companies, with no intention of repaying. This leaves legitimate investors and account-holders holding the bag when bad loans go uncollected.\u201d<\/p>\n

The behavior of BNB regarding FIB is identical – “everything is fine until the sh.. hits the fan\u201d. Yesterday BNB refuted its own statement<\/a> that it will check Bivol\u2019s evidence of such a drain in FIB by connected companies<\/a>. This outmost brazen drain is happening right now, under the nose of all institutions. However, with few exceptions, it is again a taboo subject.<\/p>\n

Yet, as we just saw, barriers that are artificially imposed on media do fall sooner or later, unfortunately not before, but after the next “bad apple” falls. And while it is falling institutions stare into nothingness with “Eyes Wide Shut”. This is perfectly demonstrated in the report of our colleagues from bTV.<\/p>\n

You will be able to read soon in Bivol about the dummy companies and the technology of the draining of FIB. And now, please read the “bad apples” <\/a>cable.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Friday, November 28, in its political talk show \u201cThis Morning\u201d, bTV aired a report by journalist Stoyan Georgiev on the drain of failed private lender Corporate Commercial Bank (KTB…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24796,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","kia_subtitle":"Only three years too late","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5547,5828],"tags":[5302,5469],"class_list":["post-24804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials-en","category-b-files-bad-apples-en","tag-bulgarian-national-bank","tag-corpbank"],"yoast_head":"\nBulgarian \u201cBad Apples\u201d Banks Now on TV - 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As revealed by The New York Times, last year she traveled to Rome for an event at the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Investigations"","block_context":{"text":"Investigations","link":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/category\/investigations-en"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/louvrier-gabbard.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/louvrier-gabbard.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/louvrier-gabbard.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/louvrier-gabbard.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/louvrier-gabbard.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":24540,"url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/companies-associated-with-bulgarian-mafia-are-trying-to-get-hold-of-commercial-bank-cb-victoria.html","url_meta":{"origin":24804,"position":1},"title":"Companies Associated with Bulgarian Mafia Are Trying to Get Hold of Commercial Bank (CB) “Victoria”","author":"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a","date":"9 November 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"AGAINST BIVOL In 2012, the Bulgarian Central Bank (Bulgarian National Bank, BNB) attacked Bivol after the site published information about Bulgarian banks practicing money laundering and lending to connected parties. Instead of controlling these processes, BNB let them develop to a near collapse of the banking system. At least two\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Investigations"","block_context":{"text":"Investigations","link":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/category\/investigations-en"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/gnili-yabulki.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/gnili-yabulki.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/gnili-yabulki.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/gnili-yabulki.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/gnili-yabulki.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":19056,"url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/letemps-ktb-pib-english.html","url_meta":{"origin":24804,"position":2},"title":"“LE TEMPS”: “BAD APPLES”, ORGANIZED CRIME AND THE LONG HAND OF MOSCOW IN BULGARIAN BANK CRISIS","author":"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a","date":"30 June 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The renowned Swiss newspaper \"Le Temps\" published in its Monday, June 30, edition an article about the bank crisis in Bulgaria. In the comments\u2019 part, the author, Alexander Levy, cites Atanas Tchobanov, editor of Bivol in saying that the crisis in Bulgarian private banks - Corporate Commercial Bank (KTB) and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Analysis"","block_context":{"text":"Analysis","link":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/category\/analysis-en"},"img":{"alt_text":"Capture_2014-06-30_a_20.45.55","src":"images\/stories\/Capture_2014-06-30_a_20.45.55.jpg","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"images\/stories\/Capture_2014-06-30_a_20.45.55.jpg 1x, images\/stories\/Capture_2014-06-30_a_20.45.55.jpg 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":19095,"url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/der-standard-tchobanov-ktb-english.html","url_meta":{"origin":24804,"position":3},"title":"DER STANDARD: ATANAS TCHOBANOV FROM BIVOL ON WHAT CAUSED THE BANKING CRISIS IN BULGARIA","author":"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a","date":"16 July 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The renowned Austrian newspaper \u201cDer Standard\u201d published Wednesday an interview of Markus Bernath with the editor of Bivol Atanas Tchobanov. \"Prosecution was the most important weapon\" One oligarch uses the justice system in his battle against another oligarch - journalist Tchobanov on the underlying causes of the Bulgarian banking crisis\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Interviews"","block_context":{"text":"Interviews","link":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/category\/interviews-en"},"img":{"alt_text":"Capture_2014-07-16_a_19.21.42","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Capture_2014-07-16_a_19.21.42.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Capture_2014-07-16_a_19.21.42.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Capture_2014-07-16_a_19.21.42.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14907,"url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/the-qbig-laundryq-or-the-bad-apples-in-bulgarias-banking-sector.html","url_meta":{"origin":24804,"position":4},"title":"The “Big Laundry” or the Bad Apples in Bulgaria\u2019s Banking Sector","author":"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a","date":"17 October 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"On October 26, 2005, on the so-called \u201cgovernment route\u201d on \u201cBulgaria\u201d boulevard in Sofia, banker Emil Kuylev was gunned down. Immediately after the murder, the top people in the country \u2013 Interior Minister, Rumen Petkov, Chief Prosecutor, Nikola Filchev, and President Parvanov publically declared that Kyulev\u2019s business was \u201cclean.\u201d The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Banks\"","block_context":{"text":"Banks","link":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/tag\/banks"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18622,"url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/confirmed-and-proven-banker-tsvetan-vasilev-financed-bulgarian-media-empire.html","url_meta":{"origin":24804,"position":5},"title":"Confirmed and Proven: Banker Tsvetan Vasilev Financed Bulgarian Media Empire","author":"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a","date":"27 March 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The newspapers of Irena Krasteva and her son, shady lawmaker Delyan Peevski, \"Monitor\", \"Telegraph\" and \"Politika\" (Politics) have been bought with a loan from Tsvetan Vassilev\u2019s Corporate Commercial Bank (KTB). This has become evident from an investigation of the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office, which Bivol requested from the Parliament under\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Investigations"","block_context":{"text":"Investigations","link":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/category\/investigations-en"},"img":{"alt_text":"Capture_2014-03-27_a_14.12.15","src":"\/images\/stories\/Capture_2014-03-27_a_14.12.15.jpg","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"\/images\/stories\/Capture_2014-03-27_a_14.12.15.jpg 1x, \/images\/stories\/Capture_2014-03-27_a_14.12.15.jpg 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/btv-gnili-yabulki.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}