Two vacant vice chair positions at the Customs Agency are open after the appointment of Kiril Zhelev as successor of Vanio Tanev. After a series of uncertainties on the number of deputies, there quantity must have finally been agreed, the Rules of the department show now. The fight for the nepotistic appointment to these positions went beyond party boundaries and has deepened in internal party castes of the socialists. Signals for such lobbying were received through people loyal to Tanev.
According to the BANKER’s sources deputy head of parliament Maya Manolova is attempting through the new customs boss Kiril Zhelev, to propose to the Minister of Finance Peter Tchobanov to appoint as deputy head of the agency Nicola Shushkov. His name has surfaced years ago when auditor Emil Dimitrov publicly announced that the customs boss nicknamed Mousy keeps the whole smuggling business in southwestern Bulgaria, with headquarters in Kyustendil, where Mrs. Manolova comes from. Later Vanio Tanev himself revealed that behind the iconic nickname hides in fact Nikolai Shushkov. Originally Tanev announced that his subordinates work well and will not remove anyone from office, but later the dubbed boss of smuggling in this region resigned himself.
Now the socialist party has decided to resurrect him, elevating him to the top management of the sector, commented insiders from the Customs Agency. They did not want to specify but admitted for the BANKER: They say terrible things about him. Customs officers commented that the appointment of Shushkov will cause tension because his name was involved in quite scandalous stories that will further undermine the prestige of the whole government.
In a report of the Inspectorate of the Customs Agency declassified a few years ago from 2006, it became clear that at the time when Shushkov was a head of the border crossing control authority, a lot of violations were carried out. One of the most striking is related to the import of lard from the United States, documents for which were processed out of the point’s working hours, just three hours before the New Year. The reason was to save the 40 percent duty with effect from 00.00 on the New Year’s day.
In this, not very good for Shushkov, period broke out the scandal with the tank having passed several times through the Checkpoint – Logodash that was full with smuggled cigarettes.
Shushkov has a thick communist dossier that he has never tried to hide. Two years ago he was nominated for mayor of Blagoevgrad from the socialist party.
Nikolay Iliev Popov was appointed Deputy Director of the Customs Agency in charge of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation about a month ago. He is a longtime employee of the Ministry of Interior, headed the Sofia city unit for fighting organized crime. He is said to have experience in fighting and preventing crime related to trafficking in persons, smuggling of excise goods and drugs.
The BANKER
