![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/tgi-tchobanov-2.png\")
<\/a>French court: Atanas Tchobanov’s statement is not defamation<\/p><\/div>\n
Is Danov a cheat?<\/strong><\/h2>\nRegarding French journalists’ claims that Ivan Danov had received money from the Employment Agency through fraud, the prosecution also pleaded for release of liability because the investigation had been conducted in good faith, the issue was of great public interest, and also it attests that Danov has received this money in violation of the law. This was also the plea of the lawyers of journalist Remy Vincent and the producers of M6 TV.<\/p>\n
The Court accepted that linking Ivan Danov\u2019s name to fraud was justified and released the journalists of liability.<\/p>\n
“From the documents and evidence, it appears that from 2004 to 2005 Ivan Danov has received undue benefits within the meaning of the French unemployment insurance regulation in France, amounting to many thousands of euros<\/em>.”<\/p>\nThe Court\u2019s motives were the jurisprudence of the French Supreme Court of Cassation, according to which the failure to comply with the declaration from the initial application for unemployment benefits, namely, the commitment to notify the Employment Agency of any change in the situation, constitutes fraud within the meaning of the Labor Code. There is also fraud when there is no notification about the beneficiary returning to his home country, the Court ruled.<\/p>\n
That is exactly what Danov has done after he has started receiving the benefits. He, himself, made public statements that he had not known that the French services continued to pay him the benefits after he returned to Bulgaria.<\/p>\n
Following the decision of the Paris District Court, Ivan Danov can appeal within ten days. Whatever happens, however, he will not be liable nor even return the unlawfully received benefits, as all limitation periods have expired in both France and Bulgaria where he was investigated for declaring untrue data.<\/p>\n
Political Cover-up<\/strong><\/h2>\nFrom what was said in the courtroom, it became clear that French television has requested an opinion about Danov\u2019s case from Rejane Biolet, Head of the Unit for \u201cPreventing and Combating Abuse and Sensitive Cases\u201d of the French Employment Agency, but she has refused to speak for fear of political pressure.<\/p>\n
The footage from the TV program that was presented in the courtroom showed her demanding to stop the camera after receiving the question about Danov, pointing her finger up. The Court became interested whether Biolet had shared anything about the issue off the record. Journalist Remy Vincent said that when the camera was not rolling, Biolet told him how she had tried several times to launch a probe into evidence of Danov abusing the welfare system but had been deterred by her bosses.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/tgi-danov-300x170.png\")
<\/a>Excerpt from the judgment of the Paris District Court in the defamation case of Ivan Danov<\/p><\/div>\n
The political context at that moment was favorable to Danov. In France, then, the Socialists were in power, and Bulgaria had a government with the mandate of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), whose boss Sergei Stanishev is also the leader of the Party of European Socialists (PES). In fact, it was the government of controversial lawmaker, businessman and media mogul Delyan Peevski, who even had a brief stint as head of the National Security Agency (DANS). Against the backdrop of relentless street protests and series of scandals, a possible administrative prosecution against Danov in France could have shaken the power in Bulgaria and accelerated the fall of the cabinet of Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski.<\/p>\n
The cover-up for Danov emerged at that time in Bulgaria as well. The Bulgarian Prosecutor’s Office managed to crush a probe against him for document fraud. This happened after a prolonged passing of the ball and the change of the supervising prosecutor with the “right” one – prosecutor Betsova. She twice returned the case to the Ministry of Interior for further investigation until the statute of limitations expired.<\/p>\n
Betsova also became known for terminating the investigation into the illegal enrichment of Delyan Peevski on the signal of the so-called “Protest Network”. She managed to attract the interest of the-then French Ambassador to Bulgaria who asked in a tweed “What kind of apple is Betsova?” in a reference to his earlier claims of the presence of “bad apples” in the Bulgarian judiciary.<\/p>\n
After the Prosecutor’s Office whitewashed Danov’s past, he tried to prosecute Atanas Tchobanov for defamation. The District Prosecutor’s Office in Sofia launched pre-trial proceedings against Tchobanov, but they were terminated<\/a> by the Appellate Prosecutor’s Office on the grounds that there was evidence that Ivan Danov had committed a crime – document fraud<\/strong>, by declaring untrue circumstances to the French authorities in order to benefit.<\/p>\nWhy is Danov suing in Paris in a “doomed case”?<\/strong><\/h2>\nAfter Danov filed suit in 2016, Peevski\u2019s media renewed their defamatory campaign against Bivol and more specifically against the editor-in-chief of Atanas Tchobanov, who lives in Paris. They reported that the French Prosecutor’s Office had “been after” Tchobanov and had handed him over to the Criminal Court for defamation, something that was downright disproven by the Paris District Court. In fact, it is clear from the prosecution\u2019s pleadings that it does not agree with the plaintiff and calls for Tchobanov being released of liability.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/tgi-tchobanov-1-1024x154.png\")
<\/a>The prosecution pleads that Tchobanov has not defamed Danov<\/p><\/div>\n
The smear campaign by Peevski\u2019s media against Bivol and its journalists has been going on for years. It was activated after a series of investigations into Bulgartabac<\/a>‘s hidden ownership and the complicity of First Investment Bank<\/a> (Fibank), the bank financing Peevski, in criminal schemes with theft of EU funds.<\/p>\nPeevski\u2019s mercenaries, acting as journalists, even harassed Tchobanov and his family in Paris. The smear campaign was condemned in publications of Reporters Without Borders<\/a>, OCCRP<\/a>, the International Committee to Protect Journalists CPJ<\/a> and the organization Index of censorship<\/a>.<\/p>\nIn fact, with his legal claim, Ivan Danov is acting as Peevski\u2019s scapegoat in his dirty media campaign against Bivol<\/strong> as demonstrated by the French court\u2019s judgement.<\/p>\nIn France and in Bulgaria similar cases are a daily routine for journalists and the media. At the moment, Bivol is involved in several cases against claims by protagonists in out investigations. Ultimately, the court assesses the plaintiff’s claims by taking into account the veracity of the allegations, the good faith of the reporters and the public interest in the facts disclosed in the publications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On June 28, 2018, the Paris District Court (Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris) issued a ruling with which it acquitted journalists and producers of French TV M6 and Bivol’s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24492,"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":"","_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":true,"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":[5543,5806],"tags":[8513,8514,5140,5086,7328,5142,8515],"class_list":["post-42309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis-en","category-leading-en","tag-defamation","tag-french-court","tag-ivan-danov-en","tag-media-en","tag-peevski","tag-prosecution","tag-smear-campaign"],"yoast_head":"\n
Paris Court Rejects Claim against Journalists by \u201cPhony Unemployed\u201d Bulgarian Minister and Confirms He Collected Unemployment Benefits Illegally - Bivol!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Paris Court Rejects Claim against Journalists by \u201cPhony Unemployed\u201d Bulgarian Minister and Confirms He Collected Unemployment Benefits Illegally\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On June 28, 2018, the Paris District Court (Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris) issued a ruling with which it acquitted journalists and producers of French TV M6 and Bivol’s…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Bivol!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bivolnews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bivolnews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-06-30T11:35:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-07-03T05:50:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/danov-biolet.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/bivolbg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en\\\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en\\\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ad1863f03d50318f746757ba517286a2\"},\"headline\":\"Paris Court Rejects Claim against Journalists by \u201cPhony Unemployed\u201d Bulgarian Minister and Confirms He Collected Unemployment Benefits Illegally\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-06-30T11:35:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-07-03T05:50:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en\\\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html\"},\"wordCount\":1236,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en\\\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/danov-biolet.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"defamation\",\"French court\",\"Ivan Danov\",\"media\",\"Peevski\",\"Prosecution\",\"smear campaign\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Analysis\",\"Leading\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en\\\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en\\\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html\",\"name\":\"Paris Court Rejects Claim against Journalists by \u201cPhony Unemployed\u201d Bulgarian Minister and Confirms He Collected Unemployment Benefits Illegally - Bivol!\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en\\\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en\\\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/danov-biolet.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-06-30T11:35:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-07-03T05:50:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ad1863f03d50318f746757ba517286a2\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en\\\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en\\\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en\\\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/danov-biolet.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/danov-biolet.jpg\",\"width\":600,\"height\":350},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en\\\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"\u041d\u0430\u0447\u0430\u043b\u043e\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Paris Court Rejects Claim against Journalists by \u201cPhony Unemployed\u201d Bulgarian Minister and Confirms He Collected Unemployment Benefits Illegally\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en\",\"name\":\"Bivol!\",\"description\":\" Mind the horns!\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ad1863f03d50318f746757ba517286a2\",\"name\":\"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/4e3a6263fb31a1f9d980ef7f7f1e4b9e641dc9b309a53c3e112cc8bb4e679df9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/4e3a6263fb31a1f9d980ef7f7f1e4b9e641dc9b309a53c3e112cc8bb4e679df9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/4e3a6263fb31a1f9d980ef7f7f1e4b9e641dc9b309a53c3e112cc8bb4e679df9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a\"},\"description\":\"The BIVOL itself\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/bivolnews\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/https:\\\/\\\/twitter.com\\\/bivolbg\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en\\\/author\\\/bivol\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Paris Court Rejects Claim against Journalists by \u201cPhony Unemployed\u201d Bulgarian Minister and Confirms He Collected Unemployment Benefits Illegally - Bivol!","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Paris Court Rejects Claim against Journalists by \u201cPhony Unemployed\u201d Bulgarian Minister and Confirms He Collected Unemployment Benefits Illegally","og_description":"On June 28, 2018, the Paris District Court (Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris) issued a ruling with which it acquitted journalists and producers of French TV M6 and Bivol’s…","og_url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html","og_site_name":"Bivol!","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bivolnews\/","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bivolnews\/","article_published_time":"2018-06-30T11:35:11+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-07-03T05:50:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":350,"url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/danov-biolet.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/bivolbg","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html"},"author":{"name":"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a","@id":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en#\/schema\/person\/ad1863f03d50318f746757ba517286a2"},"headline":"Paris Court Rejects Claim against Journalists by \u201cPhony Unemployed\u201d Bulgarian Minister and Confirms He Collected Unemployment Benefits Illegally","datePublished":"2018-06-30T11:35:11+00:00","dateModified":"2018-07-03T05:50:53+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html"},"wordCount":1236,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/danov-biolet.jpg","keywords":["defamation","French court","Ivan Danov","media","Peevski","Prosecution","smear campaign"],"articleSection":["Analysis","Leading"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html","url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html","name":"Paris Court Rejects Claim against Journalists by \u201cPhony Unemployed\u201d Bulgarian Minister and Confirms He Collected Unemployment Benefits Illegally - Bivol!","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/danov-biolet.jpg","datePublished":"2018-06-30T11:35:11+00:00","dateModified":"2018-07-03T05:50:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en#\/schema\/person\/ad1863f03d50318f746757ba517286a2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/danov-biolet.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/danov-biolet.jpg","width":600,"height":350},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u041d\u0430\u0447\u0430\u043b\u043e","item":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Paris Court Rejects Claim against Journalists by \u201cPhony Unemployed\u201d Bulgarian Minister and Confirms He Collected Unemployment Benefits Illegally"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en#website","url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en","name":"Bivol!","description":" Mind the horns!","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en#\/schema\/person\/ad1863f03d50318f746757ba517286a2","name":"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4e3a6263fb31a1f9d980ef7f7f1e4b9e641dc9b309a53c3e112cc8bb4e679df9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4e3a6263fb31a1f9d980ef7f7f1e4b9e641dc9b309a53c3e112cc8bb4e679df9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4e3a6263fb31a1f9d980ef7f7f1e4b9e641dc9b309a53c3e112cc8bb4e679df9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a"},"description":"The BIVOL itself","sameAs":["https:\/\/bivol.bg","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bivolnews\/","https:\/\/x.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/bivolbg"],"url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/author\/bivol"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peFaG8-b0p","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":32410,"url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/who-harnessed-french-unemployed-ivan-danov-to-launch-new-smear-campaign-against-bivol.html","url_meta":{"origin":42309,"position":0},"title":"#Who Harnessed “French Unemployed” Ivan Danov to Launch New Smear Campaign against Bivol","author":"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a","date":"12 November 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"After the new publications on #Yaneva Gate in Bivol, the media owned or controlled by controversial lawmaker Delyan Peevski launched yet another smear campaign against Bivol and in particular against the Editor-in-Chief of the website Atanas Tchobanov, who lives in Paris. They are reporting rumors that the French Prosecution has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comments"","block_context":{"text":"Comments","link":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/category\/comments-en"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/danov-biolet.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/danov-biolet.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/danov-biolet.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":24509,"url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/french-tv-confirmed-the-political-cover-up-for-ivan-danov.html","url_meta":{"origin":42309,"position":1},"title":"French TV confirmed the Political Cover-up over Ivan Danov","author":"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a","date":"3 November 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"On the picture - Ivan Danov and Rejane Biolet, Head of the Unit for \u201cPreventing and Combating Abuse and Sensitive Cases\u201d of the French Employment Services, who refuses to investigate Danov over political cover-up. A report about the abuses of the French tax and social system was aired last evening\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bivol in the media"","block_context":{"text":"Bivol in the media","link":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/category\/recognition-english"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/danov-biolet.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/danov-biolet.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/danov-biolet.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":18710,"url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/ambassador-of-france-we-will-investigate-ivan-danov.html","url_meta":{"origin":42309,"position":2},"title":"Ambassador of France: We Will Investigate Ivan Danov","author":"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a","date":"6 March 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"In February 2005, Ivan Danov founded a company in Bulgaria. At the same time, he was registered as unemployed in France and received welfare. On Thursday, in the morning talk show \u201cThe Day Begins\u201d on the public TV BNT, the Ambassador of France H.E. Xavier Lapeyre de Cabanes confirmed that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comments"","block_context":{"text":"Comments","link":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/category\/comments-en"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Capture_2014-03-06_a_10.32.01.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Capture_2014-03-06_a_10.32.01.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Capture_2014-03-06_a_10.32.01.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":27914,"url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/who-vacations-on-the-beach-with-money-from-bulgarian-ministers-french-welfare.html","url_meta":{"origin":42309,"position":3},"title":"Who Vacations on the Beach Using Bulgarian Minister\u2019s Unemployment Benefit from France?","author":"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a","date":"7 September 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The saga with the former \"French Unemployed\" and former Bulgarian Minister Ivan Danov has an unexpected continuation. \u0422he prosecution finally sprung to action, became involved and launched pre-trial proceedings, but not against Danov for abuse of the French social services. The proceedings are against the Editor-in-Chief of Bivol Atanas Tchobanov.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Danov gate"","block_context":{"text":"Danov gate","link":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/category\/b-files-en\/danovgate-english"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/releve-danov-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/releve-danov-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/releve-danov-2.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":25997,"url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/bulgarian-party-prosecutor-boryana-betsova-exonerated-french-unemployed-ivan-danov-as-well.html","url_meta":{"origin":42309,"position":4},"title":"Bulgarian \u201cParty\u201d Prosecutor Boryana Betsova Exonerated “French Unemployed” Ivan Danov As Well","author":"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a","date":"26 February 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Boryana Betsova, what apple is she?\" French Ambassador in Sofia Xavier Lapeyre de Cabanes wrote on Twitter. The suggestion is clear. Boryana Betsova, a prosecutor from the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office is the one that closed the investigation against Delyan Peevski, notorious lawmaker from the party largely representing the Muslim\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comments"","block_context":{"text":"Comments","link":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/category\/comments-en"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/becova-danov.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/becova-danov.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/becova-danov.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/becova-danov.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":19119,"url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/danov-france-pressrelease-english.html","url_meta":{"origin":42309,"position":5},"title":"CONTROVERSIAL BULGARIAN MINISTER FORSAKEN BY FRANCE","author":"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a","date":"21 July 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"An official statement of France, posted on the site of the Embassy in Sofia on July 11, denies Bivol\u2019s lead that Bulgarian Minister Ivan Danov might have been recruited by its secret services. \u201cWe firmly refute recent claims, published on the site Bivol, according to which Mr. Ivan Danov has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Danov gate"","block_context":{"text":"Danov gate","link":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/category\/b-files-en\/danovgate-english"},"img":{"alt_text":"Capture_2014-07-20_a_12.06.30","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Capture_2014-07-20_a_12.06.30.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Capture_2014-07-20_a_12.06.30.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Capture_2014-07-20_a_12.06.30.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/danov-biolet.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42309","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=42309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The Court\u2019s motives were the jurisprudence of the French Supreme Court of Cassation, according to which the failure to comply with the declaration from the initial application for unemployment benefits, namely, the commitment to notify the Employment Agency of any change in the situation, constitutes fraud within the meaning of the Labor Code. There is also fraud when there is no notification about the beneficiary returning to his home country, the Court ruled.<\/p>\n
That is exactly what Danov has done after he has started receiving the benefits. He, himself, made public statements that he had not known that the French services continued to pay him the benefits after he returned to Bulgaria.<\/p>\n
Following the decision of the Paris District Court, Ivan Danov can appeal within ten days. Whatever happens, however, he will not be liable nor even return the unlawfully received benefits, as all limitation periods have expired in both France and Bulgaria where he was investigated for declaring untrue data.<\/p>\n
Political Cover-up<\/strong><\/h2>\nFrom what was said in the courtroom, it became clear that French television has requested an opinion about Danov\u2019s case from Rejane Biolet, Head of the Unit for \u201cPreventing and Combating Abuse and Sensitive Cases\u201d of the French Employment Agency, but she has refused to speak for fear of political pressure.<\/p>\n
The footage from the TV program that was presented in the courtroom showed her demanding to stop the camera after receiving the question about Danov, pointing her finger up. The Court became interested whether Biolet had shared anything about the issue off the record. Journalist Remy Vincent said that when the camera was not rolling, Biolet told him how she had tried several times to launch a probe into evidence of Danov abusing the welfare system but had been deterred by her bosses.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Excerpt from the judgment of the Paris District Court in the defamation case of Ivan Danov<\/p><\/div>\n
The political context at that moment was favorable to Danov. In France, then, the Socialists were in power, and Bulgaria had a government with the mandate of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), whose boss Sergei Stanishev is also the leader of the Party of European Socialists (PES). In fact, it was the government of controversial lawmaker, businessman and media mogul Delyan Peevski, who even had a brief stint as head of the National Security Agency (DANS). Against the backdrop of relentless street protests and series of scandals, a possible administrative prosecution against Danov in France could have shaken the power in Bulgaria and accelerated the fall of the cabinet of Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski.<\/p>\n
The cover-up for Danov emerged at that time in Bulgaria as well. The Bulgarian Prosecutor’s Office managed to crush a probe against him for document fraud. This happened after a prolonged passing of the ball and the change of the supervising prosecutor with the “right” one – prosecutor Betsova. She twice returned the case to the Ministry of Interior for further investigation until the statute of limitations expired.<\/p>\n
Betsova also became known for terminating the investigation into the illegal enrichment of Delyan Peevski on the signal of the so-called “Protest Network”. She managed to attract the interest of the-then French Ambassador to Bulgaria who asked in a tweed “What kind of apple is Betsova?” in a reference to his earlier claims of the presence of “bad apples” in the Bulgarian judiciary.<\/p>\n
After the Prosecutor’s Office whitewashed Danov’s past, he tried to prosecute Atanas Tchobanov for defamation. The District Prosecutor’s Office in Sofia launched pre-trial proceedings against Tchobanov, but they were terminated<\/a> by the Appellate Prosecutor’s Office on the grounds that there was evidence that Ivan Danov had committed a crime – document fraud<\/strong>, by declaring untrue circumstances to the French authorities in order to benefit.<\/p>\nWhy is Danov suing in Paris in a “doomed case”?<\/strong><\/h2>\nAfter Danov filed suit in 2016, Peevski\u2019s media renewed their defamatory campaign against Bivol and more specifically against the editor-in-chief of Atanas Tchobanov, who lives in Paris. They reported that the French Prosecutor’s Office had “been after” Tchobanov and had handed him over to the Criminal Court for defamation, something that was downright disproven by the Paris District Court. In fact, it is clear from the prosecution\u2019s pleadings that it does not agree with the plaintiff and calls for Tchobanov being released of liability.<\/p>\n
<\/a>The prosecution pleads that Tchobanov has not defamed Danov<\/p><\/div>\n
The smear campaign by Peevski\u2019s media against Bivol and its journalists has been going on for years. It was activated after a series of investigations into Bulgartabac<\/a>‘s hidden ownership and the complicity of First Investment Bank<\/a> (Fibank), the bank financing Peevski, in criminal schemes with theft of EU funds.<\/p>\nPeevski\u2019s mercenaries, acting as journalists, even harassed Tchobanov and his family in Paris. The smear campaign was condemned in publications of Reporters Without Borders<\/a>, OCCRP<\/a>, the International Committee to Protect Journalists CPJ<\/a> and the organization Index of censorship<\/a>.<\/p>\nIn fact, with his legal claim, Ivan Danov is acting as Peevski\u2019s scapegoat in his dirty media campaign against Bivol<\/strong> as demonstrated by the French court\u2019s judgement.<\/p>\nIn France and in Bulgaria similar cases are a daily routine for journalists and the media. At the moment, Bivol is involved in several cases against claims by protagonists in out investigations. Ultimately, the court assesses the plaintiff’s claims by taking into account the veracity of the allegations, the good faith of the reporters and the public interest in the facts disclosed in the publications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On June 28, 2018, the Paris District Court (Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris) issued a ruling with which it acquitted journalists and producers of French TV M6 and Bivol’s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24492,"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":"","_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":true,"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":[5543,5806],"tags":[8513,8514,5140,5086,7328,5142,8515],"class_list":["post-42309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis-en","category-leading-en","tag-defamation","tag-french-court","tag-ivan-danov-en","tag-media-en","tag-peevski","tag-prosecution","tag-smear-campaign"],"yoast_head":"\n
Paris Court Rejects Claim against Journalists by \u201cPhony Unemployed\u201d Bulgarian Minister and Confirms He Collected Unemployment Benefits Illegally - Bivol!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Paris Court Rejects Claim against Journalists by \u201cPhony Unemployed\u201d Bulgarian Minister and Confirms He Collected Unemployment Benefits Illegally\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On June 28, 2018, the Paris District Court (Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris) issued a ruling with which it acquitted journalists and producers of French TV M6 and Bivol’s…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Bivol!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bivolnews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bivolnews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-06-30T11:35:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-07-03T05:50:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/danov-biolet.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/bivolbg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en\\\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en\\\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ad1863f03d50318f746757ba517286a2\"},\"headline\":\"Paris Court Rejects Claim against Journalists by \u201cPhony Unemployed\u201d Bulgarian Minister and Confirms He Collected Unemployment Benefits Illegally\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-06-30T11:35:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-07-03T05:50:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en\\\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html\"},\"wordCount\":1236,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en\\\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/danov-biolet.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"defamation\",\"French court\",\"Ivan Danov\",\"media\",\"Peevski\",\"Prosecution\",\"smear campaign\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Analysis\",\"Leading\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en\\\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en\\\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html\",\"name\":\"Paris Court Rejects Claim against Journalists by \u201cPhony Unemployed\u201d Bulgarian Minister and Confirms He Collected Unemployment Benefits Illegally - Bivol!\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en\\\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en\\\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/danov-biolet.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-06-30T11:35:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-07-03T05:50:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ad1863f03d50318f746757ba517286a2\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en\\\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en\\\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en\\\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/danov-biolet.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/danov-biolet.jpg\",\"width\":600,\"height\":350},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en\\\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"\u041d\u0430\u0447\u0430\u043b\u043e\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Paris Court Rejects Claim against Journalists by \u201cPhony Unemployed\u201d Bulgarian Minister and Confirms He Collected Unemployment Benefits Illegally\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en\",\"name\":\"Bivol!\",\"description\":\" Mind the horns!\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ad1863f03d50318f746757ba517286a2\",\"name\":\"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/4e3a6263fb31a1f9d980ef7f7f1e4b9e641dc9b309a53c3e112cc8bb4e679df9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/4e3a6263fb31a1f9d980ef7f7f1e4b9e641dc9b309a53c3e112cc8bb4e679df9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/4e3a6263fb31a1f9d980ef7f7f1e4b9e641dc9b309a53c3e112cc8bb4e679df9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a\"},\"description\":\"The BIVOL itself\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/bivolnews\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/https:\\\/\\\/twitter.com\\\/bivolbg\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bivol.bg\\\/en\\\/author\\\/bivol\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Paris Court Rejects Claim against Journalists by \u201cPhony Unemployed\u201d Bulgarian Minister and Confirms He Collected Unemployment Benefits Illegally - Bivol!","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Paris Court Rejects Claim against Journalists by \u201cPhony Unemployed\u201d Bulgarian Minister and Confirms He Collected Unemployment Benefits Illegally","og_description":"On June 28, 2018, the Paris District Court (Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris) issued a ruling with which it acquitted journalists and producers of French TV M6 and Bivol’s…","og_url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html","og_site_name":"Bivol!","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bivolnews\/","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bivolnews\/","article_published_time":"2018-06-30T11:35:11+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-07-03T05:50:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":350,"url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/danov-biolet.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/bivolbg","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html"},"author":{"name":"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a","@id":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en#\/schema\/person\/ad1863f03d50318f746757ba517286a2"},"headline":"Paris Court Rejects Claim against Journalists by \u201cPhony Unemployed\u201d Bulgarian Minister and Confirms He Collected Unemployment Benefits Illegally","datePublished":"2018-06-30T11:35:11+00:00","dateModified":"2018-07-03T05:50:53+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html"},"wordCount":1236,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/danov-biolet.jpg","keywords":["defamation","French court","Ivan Danov","media","Peevski","Prosecution","smear campaign"],"articleSection":["Analysis","Leading"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html","url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html","name":"Paris Court Rejects Claim against Journalists by \u201cPhony Unemployed\u201d Bulgarian Minister and Confirms He Collected Unemployment Benefits Illegally - Bivol!","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/danov-biolet.jpg","datePublished":"2018-06-30T11:35:11+00:00","dateModified":"2018-07-03T05:50:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en#\/schema\/person\/ad1863f03d50318f746757ba517286a2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/danov-biolet.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/danov-biolet.jpg","width":600,"height":350},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/paris-court-rejects-claim-against-journalists-by-phony-unemployed-bulgarian-and-confirms-he-collected-unemployment-benefits-illegally.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u041d\u0430\u0447\u0430\u043b\u043e","item":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Paris Court Rejects Claim against Journalists by \u201cPhony Unemployed\u201d Bulgarian Minister and Confirms He Collected Unemployment Benefits Illegally"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en#website","url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en","name":"Bivol!","description":" Mind the horns!","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en#\/schema\/person\/ad1863f03d50318f746757ba517286a2","name":"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4e3a6263fb31a1f9d980ef7f7f1e4b9e641dc9b309a53c3e112cc8bb4e679df9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4e3a6263fb31a1f9d980ef7f7f1e4b9e641dc9b309a53c3e112cc8bb4e679df9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4e3a6263fb31a1f9d980ef7f7f1e4b9e641dc9b309a53c3e112cc8bb4e679df9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a"},"description":"The BIVOL itself","sameAs":["https:\/\/bivol.bg","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bivolnews\/","https:\/\/x.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/bivolbg"],"url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/author\/bivol"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peFaG8-b0p","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":32410,"url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/who-harnessed-french-unemployed-ivan-danov-to-launch-new-smear-campaign-against-bivol.html","url_meta":{"origin":42309,"position":0},"title":"#Who Harnessed “French Unemployed” Ivan Danov to Launch New Smear Campaign against Bivol","author":"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a","date":"12 November 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"After the new publications on #Yaneva Gate in Bivol, the media owned or controlled by controversial lawmaker Delyan Peevski launched yet another smear campaign against Bivol and in particular against the Editor-in-Chief of the website Atanas Tchobanov, who lives in Paris. They are reporting rumors that the French Prosecution has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comments"","block_context":{"text":"Comments","link":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/category\/comments-en"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/danov-biolet.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/danov-biolet.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/danov-biolet.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":24509,"url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/french-tv-confirmed-the-political-cover-up-for-ivan-danov.html","url_meta":{"origin":42309,"position":1},"title":"French TV confirmed the Political Cover-up over Ivan Danov","author":"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a","date":"3 November 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"On the picture - Ivan Danov and Rejane Biolet, Head of the Unit for \u201cPreventing and Combating Abuse and Sensitive Cases\u201d of the French Employment Services, who refuses to investigate Danov over political cover-up. A report about the abuses of the French tax and social system was aired last evening\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bivol in the media"","block_context":{"text":"Bivol in the media","link":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/category\/recognition-english"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/danov-biolet.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/danov-biolet.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/danov-biolet.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":18710,"url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/ambassador-of-france-we-will-investigate-ivan-danov.html","url_meta":{"origin":42309,"position":2},"title":"Ambassador of France: We Will Investigate Ivan Danov","author":"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a","date":"6 March 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"In February 2005, Ivan Danov founded a company in Bulgaria. At the same time, he was registered as unemployed in France and received welfare. On Thursday, in the morning talk show \u201cThe Day Begins\u201d on the public TV BNT, the Ambassador of France H.E. Xavier Lapeyre de Cabanes confirmed that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comments"","block_context":{"text":"Comments","link":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/category\/comments-en"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Capture_2014-03-06_a_10.32.01.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Capture_2014-03-06_a_10.32.01.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Capture_2014-03-06_a_10.32.01.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":27914,"url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/who-vacations-on-the-beach-with-money-from-bulgarian-ministers-french-welfare.html","url_meta":{"origin":42309,"position":3},"title":"Who Vacations on the Beach Using Bulgarian Minister\u2019s Unemployment Benefit from France?","author":"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a","date":"7 September 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The saga with the former \"French Unemployed\" and former Bulgarian Minister Ivan Danov has an unexpected continuation. \u0422he prosecution finally sprung to action, became involved and launched pre-trial proceedings, but not against Danov for abuse of the French social services. The proceedings are against the Editor-in-Chief of Bivol Atanas Tchobanov.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Danov gate"","block_context":{"text":"Danov gate","link":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/category\/b-files-en\/danovgate-english"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/releve-danov-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/releve-danov-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/releve-danov-2.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":25997,"url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/bulgarian-party-prosecutor-boryana-betsova-exonerated-french-unemployed-ivan-danov-as-well.html","url_meta":{"origin":42309,"position":4},"title":"Bulgarian \u201cParty\u201d Prosecutor Boryana Betsova Exonerated “French Unemployed” Ivan Danov As Well","author":"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a","date":"26 February 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Boryana Betsova, what apple is she?\" French Ambassador in Sofia Xavier Lapeyre de Cabanes wrote on Twitter. The suggestion is clear. Boryana Betsova, a prosecutor from the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office is the one that closed the investigation against Delyan Peevski, notorious lawmaker from the party largely representing the Muslim\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comments"","block_context":{"text":"Comments","link":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/category\/comments-en"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/becova-danov.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/becova-danov.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/becova-danov.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/becova-danov.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":19119,"url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/danov-france-pressrelease-english.html","url_meta":{"origin":42309,"position":5},"title":"CONTROVERSIAL BULGARIAN MINISTER FORSAKEN BY FRANCE","author":"\u0415\u043a\u0438\u043f \u043d\u0430 \u0411\u0438\u0432\u043e\u043b\u044a","date":"21 July 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"An official statement of France, posted on the site of the Embassy in Sofia on July 11, denies Bivol\u2019s lead that Bulgarian Minister Ivan Danov might have been recruited by its secret services. \u201cWe firmly refute recent claims, published on the site Bivol, according to which Mr. Ivan Danov has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Danov gate"","block_context":{"text":"Danov gate","link":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/category\/b-files-en\/danovgate-english"},"img":{"alt_text":"Capture_2014-07-20_a_12.06.30","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Capture_2014-07-20_a_12.06.30.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Capture_2014-07-20_a_12.06.30.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Capture_2014-07-20_a_12.06.30.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/danov-biolet.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42309","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=42309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bivol.bg\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/a>Excerpt from the judgment of the Paris District Court in the defamation case of Ivan Danov<\/p><\/div>\n
The political context at that moment was favorable to Danov. In France, then, the Socialists were in power, and Bulgaria had a government with the mandate of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), whose boss Sergei Stanishev is also the leader of the Party of European Socialists (PES). In fact, it was the government of controversial lawmaker, businessman and media mogul Delyan Peevski, who even had a brief stint as head of the National Security Agency (DANS). Against the backdrop of relentless street protests and series of scandals, a possible administrative prosecution against Danov in France could have shaken the power in Bulgaria and accelerated the fall of the cabinet of Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski.<\/p>\n
The cover-up for Danov emerged at that time in Bulgaria as well. The Bulgarian Prosecutor’s Office managed to crush a probe against him for document fraud. This happened after a prolonged passing of the ball and the change of the supervising prosecutor with the “right” one – prosecutor Betsova. She twice returned the case to the Ministry of Interior for further investigation until the statute of limitations expired.<\/p>\n
Betsova also became known for terminating the investigation into the illegal enrichment of Delyan Peevski on the signal of the so-called “Protest Network”. She managed to attract the interest of the-then French Ambassador to Bulgaria who asked in a tweed “What kind of apple is Betsova?” in a reference to his earlier claims of the presence of “bad apples” in the Bulgarian judiciary.<\/p>\n
After the Prosecutor’s Office whitewashed Danov’s past, he tried to prosecute Atanas Tchobanov for defamation. The District Prosecutor’s Office in Sofia launched pre-trial proceedings against Tchobanov, but they were terminated<\/a> by the Appellate Prosecutor’s Office on the grounds that there was evidence that Ivan Danov had committed a crime – document fraud<\/strong>, by declaring untrue circumstances to the French authorities in order to benefit.<\/p>\n After Danov filed suit in 2016, Peevski\u2019s media renewed their defamatory campaign against Bivol and more specifically against the editor-in-chief of Atanas Tchobanov, who lives in Paris. They reported that the French Prosecutor’s Office had “been after” Tchobanov and had handed him over to the Criminal Court for defamation, something that was downright disproven by the Paris District Court. In fact, it is clear from the prosecution\u2019s pleadings that it does not agree with the plaintiff and calls for Tchobanov being released of liability.<\/p>\n The prosecution pleads that Tchobanov has not defamed Danov<\/p><\/div>\n The smear campaign by Peevski\u2019s media against Bivol and its journalists has been going on for years. It was activated after a series of investigations into Bulgartabac<\/a>‘s hidden ownership and the complicity of First Investment Bank<\/a> (Fibank), the bank financing Peevski, in criminal schemes with theft of EU funds.<\/p>\n Peevski\u2019s mercenaries, acting as journalists, even harassed Tchobanov and his family in Paris. The smear campaign was condemned in publications of Reporters Without Borders<\/a>, OCCRP<\/a>, the International Committee to Protect Journalists CPJ<\/a> and the organization Index of censorship<\/a>.<\/p>\n In fact, with his legal claim, Ivan Danov is acting as Peevski\u2019s scapegoat in his dirty media campaign against Bivol<\/strong> as demonstrated by the French court\u2019s judgement.<\/p>\n In France and in Bulgaria similar cases are a daily routine for journalists and the media. At the moment, Bivol is involved in several cases against claims by protagonists in out investigations. Ultimately, the court assesses the plaintiff’s claims by taking into account the veracity of the allegations, the good faith of the reporters and the public interest in the facts disclosed in the publications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On June 28, 2018, the Paris District Court (Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris) issued a ruling with which it acquitted journalists and producers of French TV M6 and Bivol’s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24492,"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":"","_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":true,"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":[5543,5806],"tags":[8513,8514,5140,5086,7328,5142,8515],"class_list":["post-42309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis-en","category-leading-en","tag-defamation","tag-french-court","tag-ivan-danov-en","tag-media-en","tag-peevski","tag-prosecution","tag-smear-campaign"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy is Danov suing in Paris in a “doomed case”?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/a>