Bulgarian businessman Nikolai Banev and his wife detained in France

The businessman Nikolai Banev and his wife Evgenia were detained in France with a European arrest warrant. This is another business family against which a large-scale investigation is being conducted.

The two have been charged in absentia for money laundering and tax offenses.

The French authorities are searching the properties of the family there.

Earlier today, the specialized prosecutor’s office started an operation in Sofia and the country in connection with the activity of the privatized Polimeri AD plant. The plant was privatized by a company of Nikolai Banev and years later it was declared bankrupt.

The purpose of the European investigation order is to seize all documents and evidence, which are in the interest of the investigators. They are stored in Banevi’s mansion in the French city of Nice.

“Polimeri” plant itself was privatized in 1998 by cash and mass privatization methods.

Banevi acquired the plant through cash privatization, with a controlling stake of 24% of the factory, for just over $ 12.5 million.

In 2012, Banevi's firm “Polymer Invest”, through a series of in-kind transactions, which are believed to be suspicious, acquired the whole plant, after which it began operating at a loss and went bankrupt.

The seizure of the documents in France aims to check how Banevii acquired the whole plant and how it was brought to bankruptcy.