Vassil Bozhkov, frequently described in the Bulgarian media as the richest Bulgarian, could be drawn into in the trial of Alexander Tomov, president of CSKA Sofia football club, former deputy prime minister and executive director of Kremikovtzi steel plant.

According to private national Darik radio, Bozhkov will be among the list of witnesses called by the court to testify of Tomov and three others accused of embezzling 36 million leva from Kremikovtzi and CSKA.

Bozhkov sold CSKA to Indian tycoon Pramod Mittal in 2006. Mittal put Tomov in charge of his operations in Bulgaria. A year previously, Mittal also bought the biggest steel plant on the Balkans, Kremikovtzi.

The price of the CSKA deal, according to media reports of the time, was 14 million euro.

In 2007-2008, Kremikovtzi and CSKA entered a deep financial crisis. The club was recently sold to Bulgarian refuse collecting company Titan AC for 10 million euro, according to Tomov. Kremikovtzi, on the other hand, is in deep financial meltdown.

Prosecutors pressed charges against Tomov on February 6 2009 and the first hearing of the case was on April 3 2009. The second hearing is scheduled for May 27 2009 when 15 witnesses, including Bozhkov, will be questioned, Darik said, as quoted by Bulgarian-language Dnevnik daily.

All four accused rejected the allegations, claiming that they had acted in the most transparent way possible. One of the accused, Alexander Garibov, former financial director of CSKA, told Darik that he and Tomov had done nothing wrong and simply had transferred funds from one company to another, with both companies owned by Mittal.

On March 31 2009, the Criminal Assets Forfeiture Commission (CAFC) imposed a freeze on funds and property worth 828 000 leva owned by Tomov.

The CAFS concluded that the income reported by Tomov and his wife did not correspond with the value of the property and assets the couple owned. According to the SAFC, the difference was about 5000 minimum salaries.

Tomov's assets will be confiscated if the charges against him are proven in court. If found guilty, he could face imprisonment between 10 and 20 years.