Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned five current or former Bulgarian government officials — Rumen Stoyanov Ovcharov (Ovcharov), Aleksandar Hristov Nikolov (Nikolov), Ivan Kirov Genov (Genov), Nikolay Simeonov Malinov (Malinov), and Vladislav Ivanov Goranov (Goranov) — for their extensive involvement in corruption in Bulgaria. OFAC also designated four entities owned or controlled by Malinov, as well as an entity owned or controlled by Goranov. These individuals and entities are being designated pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13818, which builds upon and implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act and targets perpetrators of serious human rights abuse and corruption around the world. Additionally, Ovcharov, Nikolov, Goranov, and their immediate families are now subject to visa restrictions by the Department of State under Section 7031(c) of the annual Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act. Section 7031(c) provides that, in cases where the Secretary of State has credible information that foreign officials have been involved in significant corruption or a gross violation of human rights, those individuals and their immediate family members are ineligible for entry into the United States. Click here to view more information on the Section 7031(c) designations. Aleksandar Hristov Nikolov is a former CEO and deputy director of Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP), Bulgaria’s sole nuclear power plant owned by the government through Bulgarian Energy Holding, where he worked for 30 years in several roles.Russian-based nuclear fuel contracts negotiated by Ovcharov proxies overcharged KNPP up to 50 million euros, resulting in tens of millions in ill-gotten profits for participants. Ovcharov further benefited from inflated Bulgarian energy costs by introducing unnecessary middlemen to the electricity market. For example, despite KNPP having a contract to sell electricity directly to the Bulgarian National Electric Company (NEK), Ovcharov coordinated with Nikolov to receive contracts to purchase electricity from KNPP that they then resold to NEK, profiting at the expense of the Government and people of Bulgaria.
Ovcharov, Nikolov, and Genov coordinated personal commissions by corruptly diverting service contracts for KNPP to their own business interests, avoiding scrutiny from Bulgarian officials through offshore management. The resulting business arrangements of these corrupt contracts continued through at least 2020, when businesses supported by Ovcharov won a service contract with KNPP and provided him a cut of the proceeds.
Additionally, Nikolov and Genov agreed to accept five million Bulgarian leva in bribes from foreign nuclear power executives in exchange for guarantees of KNPP contracts. Even after exiting his position as Executive Director of KNPP, Genov solicited three million Bulgarian leva in bribes from Bulgarian business executives to facilitate the reconsideration of KNPP contract awards to benefit their companies.
OFAC is designating Ovcharov, Nikolov, and Genov pursuant to E.O. 13818 for being foreign persons who are current or former government officials, or persons acting for or on behalf of such officials, who are responsible for or complicit in, or have directly or indirectly engaged in, corruption, including the misappropriation of state assets, the expropriation of private assets for personal gain, corruption related to government contracts or the extraction of natural resources, or bribery.
On December 23, 2016, the President signed the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (Pub. L. 114-328, Title XII, Subtitle F) (the “Act”) into law. The Act authorized the President to impose targeted sanctions on any foreign person the President determines is, among other things, responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights, or a government official, or a senior associate of such an official, responsible for, or complicit in, ordering, controlling, or otherwise directing, acts of significant corruption.
On December 20, 2017, the President, invoking the authority of, inter alia, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701-1706) (IEEPA), issued Executive Order 13818 (82 FR 60839, December 26, 2017) (E.O. 13818), effective at 12:01 a.m. eastern standard time on December 21, 2017.
In E.O. 13818, the President determined that serious human rights abuse and corruption around the world constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States and declared a national emergency to deal with that threat.
OFAC is issuing the Global Magnitsky Sanctions Regulations, 31 CFR part 583 (the “Regulations”), to implement the Act and E.O. 13818, pursuant to authorities delegated to the Secretary of the Treasury in E.O. 13818. A copy of E.O. 13818 appears in appendix A to this part.
