EC Bulgaria Report: Nothing New

Published: 03 February 2009

By Beth

There will be precious little novelty in an upcoming European Commission report on Bulgaria, European Affairs Minister Gergana Grancharova told the Bulgarian press last week. The country hasn’t reformed its judiciary or done enough to fight organized crime since the Commission suspended €220 million in aid and programs last year. The EC’s newest monitoring report on Bulgaria, which joined the European Union two years ago, is due out later this month.

Because nothing has changed, Grancharova said she feared the EC would invoke the so-called “safeguard clauses.” Bulgaria could also see the suspension of a further €340 million in EC funds.

Meanwhile, in neighboring Romania, authorities have frozen the bank account of former Prime Minister Adrian Nastase, who faces corruption charges. The account contained $118,650, according to anti-corruption prosecutors. Nastase has been charged with using public money for his failed presidential bid in 2004. His trial is slated to begin later this month.   

Croatian Crewman Busted in SAfrica

A Croatian national was arrested last week in connection with what South African authorities called the largest-ever drug bust in the country’s history.

Police, acting on a tip, boarded a Liberian-registered ship at Durban Harbor, where they found 441 pounds of uncut cocaine stuffed in several backpacks in the Croatian crewman’s room onboard. The ship was manned by crew from Croatia, the Czech Republic and Lebanon, and was believed to be en route from Argentina to Namibia. South African police said the cocaine was “clearly the work of an international drug syndicate.” News reports this week named the crewman as Branimir Orac, 31.

Also last week, the South African government disbanded its Directorate of Special Operations, the elite crime-fighting unit better known as the Scorpions.

Polish Football Corruption Probe

Two men are being questioned in connection with a Polish football corruption investigation ongoing since 2005.

Police in the western city of Poznan on Monday detained Lech Poznan striker Piotr Reiss and a former member of the club's governing board, Przemyslaw E., on suspicion of match rigging.

The 36-year-old Reiss has also played for Hertha Berlin and has four appearances with the Polish national team.

Polish prosecutors have charged more than 150 people with match-fixing in the past several years, including coaches, players, referees and members of the country’s football federation.

Italy: News of the Mobs

Profits turned by Italy’s mafia groups surged 40 percent last year, making the mob Italy’s biggest business, according to a report from Italian non-profit study agency Eurispes.

Organized crime groups siphon 92 billion euros, about 6 percent of Italy’s gross domestic product, from Italian businesses a year through protection payments, usurious interest rates on loans and other forms of extortion, Eurispes estimates. That works out to 250 million euros a day and 10 million euros an hour, Eurispes said. Italians are struggling to make mortgage payments and support their families as the worst recession since 1975 threatens jobs and makes banks more reluctant lenders.

“With people more desperate, loan sharks thrive,” Amedeo Vitagliano, an Italian crime expert at Eurispses, said in a telephone interview. “While the country is on its knees, the mob rejoices.”

Italy is not the only place seeing a spike in mob-related business. Spain is also having its fair share of headaches from Italian Mafiosi who have emigrated westward. Spanish authorities arrested one suspected Camorra boss and his alleged deputy in Madrid last week, both of whom had been fugitives from Italian authorities.

Their capture comes after a series of arrests of suspected Camorra members in recent months in Spain, where the mafia has been accused of working with Colombian drug traffickers.

"The Camorra and Colombian cartels work together in Spain" where the Naples mafia manages part of the cocaine trafficking, an Italian police official told the El Pais daily earlier this month -- three days after the arrest in Barcelona of another Camorra leader, Salvatore Zazo.

Twelve capos have been arrested in Spain in the past three months. Cocaine isn’t the only attraction, according to the Times:

Many come to Spain attracted by the opportunity to deal cocaine or to launder millions of euros through property. Others hope to escape the unwelcome attention of Italian investigators and Carabinieri by blending into the established Italian communities in Spain.

And back in Italy last week, the Carabinieri arrested some 100 people and sequestered €1.2 in fake euro bills in the country’s biggest-ever bust of a counterfeiting ring, this one allegedly run by the Calabrian mafia.

EU Tax Havens Losing Cover?

The European Commission is considering new rules that could mean that European Union governments can swap information on possible tax evaders, reported the Associated Press.

The new measures — if approved by all 27 EU nations — would affect EU residents trying to avoid taxes at home by opening accounts in Luxembourg, Belgium and Austria, which have laws allowing for a high level of banking confidentiality. Low taxes in tiny Luxembourg also attract many investors from neighboring France and Germany.

The aim is to target tax evaders that take advantage of the limited powers of revenue collectors to check on foreign income and investments. Currently, fraudsters are able to "hide income obtained in other countries or to organize insolvencies in countries where they have less debt," (EC tax commissioner Laszlo) Kovacs said.

The BBC will air a documentary this week on just this topic, as Germany, the US, Britain and other countries seem to be moving toward zero tolerance of tax evasion – and other nefarious uses of the banking system.

Olmert Questioned Again

Israeli police questioned caretaker Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for the 13th time last week in connection with a corruption investigation that caused Olmert to step down last year.

Detectives are investigating suspicions that Olmert accepted cash-stuffed envelopes from Jewish-American businessman Morris Talansky and claimed false travel expenses before he became prime minister in 2006. Olmert denies any wrongdoing.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Thursday that Olmert would face questions for about two and a half hours on Jan.30 at his Jerusalem residence.
 
 
Afghan Poppy Crop to Drop

Afghanistan’s production of opium poppies is likely to drop this year, according to UN officials, citing low opium prices, drought and pressure from the government as reasons for the potential decrease. It could be good news for allied forces trying to break what new US envoy Richard Holbrooke called the narco-state.