OFAC Names Three Bulgarians under the Global Magnitsky Act for Corruption

On June 2nd, the U.S. Department of Treasury determined that three Bulgarian individuals should be sanctioned under the Global Magnitsky Act due to their roles in perpetuating corruption in Bulgaria.^[1] The U.S. has placed sanctions on Bulgarian individuals, including former parliamentarian Delyan Peevski, businessman and oligarch Vassil Bojkov, and former security official Ilko Zhelyazkov, as well as 64 entities known to be linked to them. Zhelyazkov was the former Deputy Chief of the Bulgarian State Agency for Technical Operations, also appointed to the National Bureau for Control on Special Intelligence-Gathering Devices. In 2016, Congress enacted the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which allows the U.S. government to sanction foreign government officials implicated in human rights abuses anywhere in the world.[2]  The Global Magnitsky Act bars any sanctioned person from entering the U.S. and holding U.S. -based property. Further, U.S. entities cannot engage in business with sanctioned persons.