Authorities in Bulgaria reported Friday that the country has revoked the so-called ‘golden passports’ of twelve people after detecting possible irregularities in the granting of these documents, issued in an attempt to encourage foreign investment in the country.
The Minister of Justice, Krum Zarkov, has indicated in declarations to the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency that another five cases are also being studied after these passports raised controversy.
He explained that a total of 120 passports of this type have been granted, which have been harshly criticized by the main European institutions. The passports allow tycoons and millionaires from third countries to obtain citizenship in exchange for investing large sums of money.
The Bulgarian National State Security Agency is now reviewing the granting of these passports, although no information has been released about the identities of those whose citizenship has been revoked.
In mid-2021, Yanaki Stoilov, the then acting justice minister, approved handing over information on these passports to the national security agency. Subsequently, his successor in office, Nadezhda Yordanova, explained that the authorities had recorded five cases of serious violations of the procedure for obtaining citizenship and that the government had opened an investigation into them.
In total, there were 47 suspected cases. «The Justice Ministry has shown that when there is sufficiently clear data there is no hesitation in sending a proposal to the president to withdraw citizenship,» Zarkov stressed in an attempt to defend the Government’s transparency.
