January 8 (BTA) - Speaking in a TV broadcast on Saturday morning, Justice Minister Nadezhda Yordanova said that, acting on alerts from her Ministry, the State Agency for National Security (SANS) has so far established five cases of serious violations in procedures for obtaining Bulgarian citizenship against investment, also known as "golden passports". The investigation into the procedures continues.

Yordanova was asked to comment an announcement on Friday by the Movement of Rights and Freedoms that the party has approached SANS to conduct a through check of each procedure of obtaining Bulgarian citizenship against investments, from since the legal option for this was created back in 2013 to date.

The long-standing issue of the so-called golden passports also emerged in a report of the European Commission released in late December which said that the US had raised the question during negotiations with the EU on full visa reciprocity for citizens of Bulgaria, Romania and Cyprus.

In her TV appearance on Saturday, Yordanova said that the MRF "were late with their reaction on the issue" since already last summer the then caretaker justice minister Yanaki Stoilov sent a letter to SANS in which he flagged up 47 cases with suspected violations of the procedures for obtaining citizenship in return of investment. Yordanova said that in practice, the figure accounts for more than half of all procedures which have ended with the issuing of such golden passports since 2013.

Yordanova described as alarming evidence indicating violations of the procedures, such as pledged investments in securities which then quickly change their owner. Another breach is a corrupt system for transfer of financial assets.

Yordanova recalled that the Justice Ministry has drawn up a bill abolishing what she described as "investment citizenship". The bill is expected to be discussed at the next weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers, she said. ZH//