February 18 (BTA) - Former Bulgarian Finance Minister
Vladislav Goranov was stopped at the Kalotina Checkpoint (on
Bulgaria's border with Serbia) on Friday afternoon when the
leased SUV he was driving proved to be reported as stolen and
wanted by Interpol Russia, Bulgarian National Radio (BNR)
reported on Saturday.

The news was confirmed to BTA by the Interior Ministry press
centre, which specified that the vehicle had been halted for a
routine check when it was detected as wanted.

Goranov explained to a BNR reporter that he had leased the
vehicle back in 2020. He returned from the checkpoint, left the
car in Dragoman and then crossed the border by another car. He
will be back home on Sunday.

The Interior Ministry is checking how the stolen car - a Toyota
Land Cruiser, had found its way in Bulgaria. An investigation
into the case is forthcoming.

The SUV is still nominally owned by Moto Pfohe, a major company
that represents several auto brands in Bulgaria. The company's
manager is Atanas Fournadjiev, Vice President of the Bulgarian
Football Union. BNR quoted him as saying that the car theft
organized crime often resorts to this trick when more expensive
cars are involved: they forge the numbers of a stolen car and
replace its chassis and engine with the chassis and engine of a
legitimate car. The result is a clone. "We have three such cases
 at present. One is a Range Rover Evoque that has been purchased
 from the manufacturing plant and has been cloned, and this
clone is listed by Interpol as wanted," Fournadjiev said. RY/LG

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