LONDON (Reuters) -Britain on Friday sanctioned three Bulgarian individuals including the country’s richest man Vasil Bozhkov for what it called a misuse of state funds for their own benefit.
The sanctions also target former lawmaker Delyan Peevski and former national security official and board member of Bulgaria’s largest state energy company, Ilko Zhelyazkov.
Britain said it was targeting corruption in Bulgaria through coordinated action with the United States, which sanctioned five current or former Bulgarian government officials on Friday and had sanctioned Peevski and Zhelyazkov in 2021.
“Those sanctioned have deprived the people of Bulgaria of resources crucial to its economic and social development,” British foreign minister James Cleverly said in a statement.
“Money that should have been used to fix roads, build hospitals and support economic growth has instead ended up in the pockets of corrupt individuals.”
Bulgaria ranks among Europe’s most corrupt states, according to the Transparency International advocacy group, and the Balkan country has faced repeated criticism for failing to root out corruption.
(Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar; Editing by Alistair Smout)
