THE US state department accused Bulgarian banks of using their lobby in Parliament to hamper law enforcement efforts, dedicated to easing the regulations of the banking secrecy.

In its International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, published in early March, the state department accused Bulgarian banks of being negligent in combating money laundering. "Although Bulgaria has done well to enact legislative changes consistent with international anti-money laundering standards, lack of enforcement remains an issue," the report said, adding that there appeared to be no political will to amend unduly broad bank secrecy provisions.

Bulgaria has strict and wide-ranging banking, tax and commercial secrecy laws. While the Financial Intelligence Agency (FIA) enjoys an exemption from these laws, they otherwise apply to all other government institutions and often are cited as an impediment to the performance of legitimate law enforcement functions, the report said.

Asked by The Sofia Echo to respond to the report, Boni Bonev, director in Banque International pour le Commerce et le Development (BICD), said the state department was not quite accurate when unveiling the "secrets" of Bulgarian banking life and in accusing them of mediating the money laundering process.

"I strongly believe that most Bulgarian banks do everything possible to prevent such money laundering transfers," Bonev said but conceded that such transactions could not be performed without the participation of banks. Currently, no big transfer, especially to the Western world, could be done by carrying money in suitcases, and if such things might still be happening in the East, in the West they are impossible.

A walk back in history, according to Bonev, could provide the answers to many questions related to money laundering in Bulgaria and the use of the country as a transit point for such operations. In communist times, the totalitarian regime specialised in operations such as money laundering related to arms dealing, drug trafficking, etc. This was then state policy and was part of the general struggle of the Cold War years. Later, after 1990, the specialisation in such operations was undertaken by certain individuals or companies who were well acquainted with the money laundering schemes of the past. They are the ones hampering law enforcement efforts and putting barriers to the prevention of money laundering, Bonev believes.

"I do not think that government or state agencies do not have access to banking secrets, that is, to suspicious transactions," he said, and added that whenever there was any suspicion of a violation, of the Bulgarian National Bank regulations or discovered by the FIA, no Bulgarian bank had declined to do a check or to provide information. The problem maybe is that whatever FIA discloses does no more than go into its records without being seriously followed up by investigation, prosecution, or the court.

Bonev strongly believes that banks should not be accused on the basis of protecting the confidentiality of their customers. Any bank in this world wants to keep its transactions confidential. Money laundered in Bulgaria, regardless of its origin - narcotics, prostitution, siphoning from the Bulgarian economy - is currently controlled by people, who are secretly controlling the political class. They, and not the banks, are preventing the passing of laws by Parliament that would uncover their crimes.

The ball is now in the Government's court. It is up to it to design a state policy and decide whether to legalise the money of those who stole it from the bankrupt banks or the state economy. Or, not legalise it and trace it to those who have money from criminal sources, Bonev said, adding that he personally is against the legalisation of such stolen money.

"This is not good. It will turn Bulgaria into some kind of a feudal state, where 1000 rich people will control the economy and the country as a whole," he said.

There are certain people in Bulgaria, who have been controlling all the nine governments of the transition period and they make every effort to prevent Bulgarians getting hold of the stolen money. If there was a period of corruption in Bulgaria when every subject was paying bribes in order to move forward, now the country is moving to the next stage, that which the World Bank calls "grand corruption".

"Grand corruption is when certain people have enough power to make laws or change the existing laws to only serve them," Bonev said.

"The US state department was not precise in its report and if it is accusing Bulgarian banks of preventing the money laundering, we in Bulgaria know very well that it is those money stealers who are behind this prevention," Bonev said.