- A decade after the closure of Corporate Commercial Bank (CCB), there are still no convictions, and the mega-trial for draining its accounts is going nowhere.
- Most key figures involved in its rise and fall have gradually faded away or been removed from the public scene.
- The main beneficiary appears to be Delyan Peevski, who not only personally benefited but also rose to become a leader of the MRF party.
On June 20, 2014, after days of massive deposit withdrawals and long queues of distressed clients, Corporate Commercial Bank (CCB), which had risen to the fourth largest lender in Bulgaria by assets, was shut down. The cause was a brewing discord between the bank's majority owner, Tsvetan Vasilev, and MRF MP Delyan Peevski that escalated into an open war. Peevski skillfully used his main weapons-media outlets and leverage in the judiciary and prosecution-to incite panic. The result was the bank being placed under special supervision, its management removed from office, and trustees appointed to oversee its operations.
Initially, there were vague plans for a recovery, but months later the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) identified a significant capital shortfall at CCB and revoked its license. By the end of the year, the Deposit Insurance Fund paid out over 3.7 billion levs (1.8 billion euro) to CCB depositors, and in 2015, the bank was officially declared bankrupt. This period was rife with numerous scandals-schemes with set-offs and assignments where large depositors tried to save their funds, and battles for control over the most lucrative assets from CCB's former corporate empire.
The fallout
Since then, the bank's name has become almost synonymous with financial machination. The history of captured institutions, oversight failures, and oligarchic-political symbiosis leading to the largest banking collapse in Bulgarian history is not new. Allowing it to swell to such proportions is a diagnosis, as is the subsequent looting of assets.
Perhaps the saddest observation is that ten years after CCB closure, there are practically no guilty parties. The mega-trial of "the heist of the century", as the prosecution put it, has been bogged down in endless hearings and isn't close to a verdict even in the first instance. Some of those directly involved and who benefited have never even been charged. Here are the key figures in the CCB scheme and their fate over the last decade:
Delyan Peevski
From today's perspective, Peevski can be seen as the big winner. Even before the bank's collapse, his name was already synonymous with corruption, and his appointment as head of the State Agency for National Security in 2013 sparked a year-long protest. According to CCB's former management, exposure to companies linked to Peevski amounted to almost 500 million levs. At the time of the bank's closure, some loans were refinanced in other institutions, some were never repaid, and Peevski managed to gain control of companies he coveted which were the root of his conflict with Tsvetan Vasilev. He was never questioned, let alone charged, for his role in CCB's rise and fall.
Years later, Peevski was sanctioned by the US and the UK for corruption, albeit for different reasons. He was put on the global Magnitsky sanctions list, which effectively barred him from officially owning and managing businesses but he has consistently relied on proxies. Being sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act did not derail his political career. On the contrary, he not only became an active participant but also the de facto spokesperson of MRF. In 2023, Peevski became leader of MRF's group in parliament, and earlier this year, he became co-chairman of the party.
Tsvetan Vasilev
The CCB crisis caught Vasilev in Vienna. Soon afterwards, he escaped to Serbia where he has been staying for the past decade. After unsuccessful attempts by the Bulgarian prosecution to secure his extradition, he is practically a political refugee in Belgrade, claiming that Bulgaria cannot provide a fair trial and fearing for his life if he returns. Since 2017, he has been charged in absentia along with 17 bank executives, members of regulatory bodies, and auditors as the leader of an organized crime group in the so-called CCB mega-trial. The 64-year-old former banker's prospects of seeing a verdict are slim given the slow progress of the trial.
Meanwhile, Vasilev engages in sporadic skirmishes through social media and occasional interviews, targeting those he believes orchestrated CCB's collapse and looting. His small victories, like the European Court of Human Rights ruling that the bank's license was revoked with procedural violations, do not significantly alter his situation. His narrative has always been that the bank was healthy and well-managed, and it was brought down by Peevski and his cronies.
Ivan Geshev
Ivan Geshev was the lead prosecutor in the CCB case and the main author of the 13,000-page indictment, known for his colorful metaphor describing the case's complexity as "like reaching the Moon with a diesel engine." This magnum opus, based on over 400 witness interviews and evidence in 1,260 volumes, was doomed from the start. The mere reading of the indictment in court, as the law requires, would have taken years, necessitating an urgent legal amendment. Even with this, the chances of the judicial saga concluding are slim, with two more instances to go. This masterpiece propelled Geshev to the position of prosecutor general in 2019. Early in his term of top prosecutor, he tried to build political capital by positioning himself as the people's sheriff, combating petty crime, and listening to citizens' problems. However, COVID-19 restrictions derailed this strategy. He remained head of the prosecution until 2023 when he was spectacularly removed by the same people who had elevated him. Since then, like Vasilev, he has mainly targeted his enemies (albeit more moderately) and dabbled in politics, but a coalition he had set up garnered only 3,000 votes in the snap general election held in June.
Petyo Petrov (aka The Euro)
Petrov's career as a criminal investigator was marked by scandals, which seemingly aided his rise. During the dramatic events, he headed the Sofia investigation unit, handling high-profile cases, including the CCB collapse. It is believed that he played a direct role in investigating the case as ordered, leveraging his dependencies. Tsvetan Vasilev vaguely described his role in a 2016 interview, quoting Peevski: "Petyo The Euro is a genius scoundrel. Give him a bottle of whiskey, and he can concoct any smear or slander against anyone."
Eventually, Petrov left the law enforcement system but transferred his skills to private practice-formally as a lawyer but actually as a broker of prosecutorial services and a machine for extortion and slander. He was exposed in the Anti-Corruption Fund's investigation 'The Eight Dwarfs' in 2020, but this produced no effect until the 2023 turmoil in the prosecution when he faced charges, but then disappeared and has been in hiding since then.
Ivan Iskrov
The BNB governor during CCB's rise and fall, Iskrov was one of the most criticized figures, epitomized by the meme "Fuck the money, health is more important". The banking supervision under BNB, theoretically, should have identified and neutralized major risks, particularly reckless lending to connected parties. These were largely public knowledge thanks to reports in the media, including Capital Weekly. Testimonies indicate that the BNB's inaction was not due to ignorance but because it was switched off from above. Despite demands for his resignation from virtually all sides, Iskrov stayed another year, arguing he didn't want to leave BNB in crisis without a governor. Unlike Iskrov, two BNB deputy governors in charge of banking supervision-Rumen Simeonov (2007-2013) and Tsvetan Gunev (2013-2014)-were among the accused. Iskrov left the banking sector and public life, his name appearing in various newly registered companies involved in real estate and wine trading.
Stoyan Mavrodiev
During the CCB's golden years and rapid decline, Mavrodiev chaired the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC). This regulator, although with a less direct view, should have monitored CCB as a public company and other entities in its orbit (e.g., insurance company Victoria, investment intermediary Fina S). The FSC's oversight failures may attract fewer criticisms, but leaked visitor logs from CCB's office building revealed Mavrodiev as one of Tsvetan Vasilev's frequent visitors. Testimonies from the case indicate he was often seen in Vasilev's office and was sometimes ordered to provide cash in the order of 50,000 euro. This was insufficient for further investigation. Mavrodiev remained FSC chair until his term ended in 2016, even though GERB party, his political backers, were in power. He later led the Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB), granting large loans primarily to companies close to MRF and Peevski. He was removed from this position in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic by order of then-Prime Minister Boyko Borissov. Since then, his name has been involved in more scandals, he has restored his legal rights and started a consultancy firm, but largely withdrew from public view.
"The Case is Closed, Forget It"
Naturally, this list is not exhaustive. The list of those who benefited from the CCB model of operation is extensive, including many other recipients of envelope money-politicians, journalists, consultants, and lobbyists. It includes newspapers and other media, directly bought or sustained for years with millions from the bank. It includes the political project Bulgaria Without Censorship and its leader Nikolay Barekov, where the money came in sacks. Of course, those who managed to grab a large or small piece or did not repay a loan after CCB's collapse are also included...
- A decade after the closure of Corporate Commercial Bank (CCB), there are still no convictions, and the mega-trial for draining its accounts is going nowhere.
- Most key figures involved in its rise and fall have gradually faded away or been removed from the public scene.
- The main beneficiary appears to be Delyan Peevski, who not only personally benefited but also rose to become a leader of the MRF party.
On June 20, 2014, after days of massive deposit withdrawals and long queues of distressed clients, Corporate Commercial Bank (CCB), which had risen to the fourth largest lender in Bulgaria by assets, was shut down. The cause was a brewing discord between the bank's majority owner, Tsvetan Vasilev, and MRF MP Delyan Peevski that escalated into an open war. Peevski skillfully used his main weapons-media outlets and leverage in the judiciary and prosecution-to incite panic. The result was the bank being placed under special supervision, its management removed from office, and trustees appointed to oversee its operations.
