The Nicolás Maduro regime has laundered a massive amount of money through the Bulgarian bank Investbank. This is clearly indicated in the resolution from the Bulgarian Attorney General in case file 16709/2022. According to official investigation data, from 2017 to February 2019, transfers totaling nearly 500 million euros were executed through 101 accounts.
It’s important to clarify that these 101 accounts do not belong to 101 different holders; rather, they are special accounts managed by the same lawyer: Tsvetan Tsanev, the sole legal intermediary responsible for the movement of funds. There is evidence suggesting that Tsanev was also a covert shareholder of the bank at the same time.
Approximately 450 million euros vanished into offshore accounts linked to the Venezuelan regime, and currently, only 46 million dollars remain available and frozen. The investigation into this large-scale money laundering has shifted to the United States and is ongoing. The Bulgarian prosecutor’s resolution explicitly distinguishes between the total volume of transferred funds (around 500 million euros) and the assets that were actually available and frozen at the time of the precautionary measures, which amount to about 46 million dollars.
Don’t steal the wealth of the Venezuelan people
Initial information regarding “only” 150 million dollars related to Maduro’s regime in Investbank accounts was disclosed by intelligence services from the United States and Britain. At a special press conference held on February 13, 2019, Bulgaria’s Attorney General, Sotir Tsatsarov, Interior Minister Mladen Marinov, and head of the National Security Agency (SANS), Dimitar Georgiev, all appeared together. To eliminate any doubts about who had gathered them, the press conference took place in the presence of the U.S. Ambassador to Sofia, Eric Rubin.
“We are working with the Bulgarian government and other EU countries to ensure that the wealth of the Venezuelan people is not stolen and that they receive the necessary support for a peaceful and democratic future,” commented Ambassador Rubin at the time. Radio Free Europe, the U.S. radio service for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, also reported a statement from Venezuelan opposition lawmaker Carlos Paparoni, claiming that “Bulgaria is part of a large-scale plan to export state assets from the Latin American country.”
Two weeks after the press conference, on February 26, 2019, the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office commenced a preliminary investigation, which was archived on June 4, 2024, by prosecutor Plamen Ivanov, not due to a lack of evidence of criminal activity but because the criminal process was transferred to the United States. The stated reason for this transfer is that U.S. authorities were in a “better position” to investigate the case.
Nevertheless, the prosecutor ordered DANS not to suspend the surveillance of the accounts. The resolution from 2024 clearly states that the total amount of funds transferred through the questioned special accounts during the incriminating period is about 500 million euros. All funds passed through 101 accounts managed by lawyer Tsvetan Tsanev.
The most disturbing detail in prosecutor Plamen Ivanov’s resolution is the drastic difference between the 500 million euros that flowed through the accounts and the assets that were actually available. At the time of imposing the seizures, only about 46 million euros were found in the accounts.
Bivol and BIRD (the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and Data) sent inquiries to the prosecutor’s office about whether any transfers were made from these accounts after the preliminary investigation began, but no response was received.
Where are the remaining 450 million euros? Sources indicate that the money did not stay in Bulgaria but was “redirected” to other destinations. The investigation establishes that the funds were transferred to offshore companies in Panama, the UAE, and Hong Kong, and the online banking of these accounts was accessed from hundreds of IP addresses in the United States and Venezuela, often during periods when Tsanev’s representatives were not even in the corresponding countries. This is a serious indication that those operating the funds were linked to the clients of the law firm’s accounts, that is, representatives and intermediaries of Venezuelan state and quasi-state structures that were part of the Maduro regime.
Everything okay?
As early as 2019, Investbank declared that all these transfers were legal and proper. “The incoming and outgoing transfers made are primarily related to food supplies to Venezuela, for which we have the corresponding documents. There are no sanctioned transactions in relation to the state-owned oil company of Venezuela, Pdvsa – Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A.,” stated the bank in a press release.
Despite the bank’s claims of strict legal compliance, the case files categorically indicate that there is a problem with the financial institution. The 2024 prosecutor resolution shows that the money from Tsanev’s accounts forms part of a large-scale transnational monetary flow, directly sourced from Venezuelan state-owned companies such as the oil giant Pdvsa, the Foreign Trade Corporation (Corpovex), and the state Development Bank (Bandes). The Bulgarian bank was utilized as a key “intermediate link” in a complex chain running through Portugal, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland.
“The clients of lawyer Tsanev, whose activities were managed through the questioned accounts at Investbank AD, are essentially foreign legal entities registered outside the country in Turkey, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Venezuela, Panama, Mexico, Hong Kong, the USA, UAE, Seychelles, etc. A large part of the incoming transfers into the clients’ accounts was reallocated for reasons other than the purpose for which they were received (payment of dividends, loans) to other accounts of the same companies or related individuals,” states the resolution.
The curtain has also been lifted on the mechanism of stealing Venezuelan money. According to the investigation, “part of the funds were returned to asset management companies (as payment for advisory services).” The Swiss company Swiss Latam AG, owned by a Liechtenstein company—an alpine principality that functions as a tax haven—SP Holding AG SV, is listed; both are included in the “suspect list” of the investigation, alongside other offshore companies registered in Panama and the UAE.
Documents from the case clearly indicate that Swiss Latam AG (later renamed Acantos Advisors AG) was not a peripheral consultant but a central organizer of the scheme: recruiting clients, coordinating account openings, instructing on the disposition of funds, and taking a percentage of the transactions. This firm has been named by foreign authorities as part of the suspicious financial infrastructure serving the Venezuelan cash flow.
According to information from Liechtenstein, when purchasing food products, “a large part of the quantities ordered to the final trading companies were diverted and returned to legal entities connected to them.”
These practices have been described as probable elements of a corruption scheme that ultimately harmed the public finances of the Venezuelan state.
Post-communist Legacy
It was also established that Dimitriyka Andreeva, who acted as Tsanev’s main representative in opening the accounts under Article 39 of Bulgaria’s Lawyers Act, was simultaneously a member of the Supervisory Board of Investbank AD, the bank where Venezuelan funds circulated. A classic conflict of interest that has yet to receive institutional response.
In a previous investigation, Bivol uncovered that Tsanev is a de facto hidden shareholder in Investbank, and Andreeva serves as his proxy.
It was also revealed that 300 million leva—the local currency in Bulgaria until it recently adopted the euro on January 1, 2026—from depositors’ money in that financial institution vanished due to transactions involving government securities with Tsanev’s companies. Officially, a former bank employee presented evidence of this, but the prosecutor’s office refused to initiate procedures leading to a trial.
The Bulgarian National Bank (BNB, equivalent to a central bank) also remains silent regarding the revelations, which are supported by documents and evidence. All of this suggests the existence of an institutional umbrella for Venezuelan flow and the toxic financial mix involving Maduro’s money, depositors’ money, and government securities, implicated by Tsvetan Tsanev and his “partner,” Petya Slavova.
It remains to be seen whether U.S. justice will reach the 450 million euros that are missing and were transferred to related accounts and offshore companies. In any case, it seems more likely to expect Bulgarian institutions to be held accountable and find the 300 million leva that are missing from Bulgarian depositors.
Lawyer Tsvetan Tsanev and Investbank did not appear out of nowhere; they are products of a transition in which networks of the former communist State Security transformed into “respectable” banks, intermediaries, and financial operators. They have invariably survived under a lasting political umbrella. Today this model yields its natural results: about 500 million euros passed through Bulgaria, over 450 million were moved abroad, and a country that voluntarily refuses to exercise its jurisdiction in one of the most serious international money laundering investigations.
The political accountability over time is specific: that of the Attorney Generals, Finance Ministers, and BNB Governors, who for years have tolerated a bank that issues frequent signals of infringements. Police institutions prefer transferring cases instead of investigating and finishing them with charges and sentences. Given this evidence, the issue is no longer just criminal, but regulatory, as there is sufficient proof of systemic control failures that require an inspection of Investbank’s license by the European Central Bank (ECB).
The leaked data for this story do not constitute an attack on the Bulgarian banking system but a defense of European standards against a model inherited from the post-communist culture of impunity. If the Venezuelan flow is unveiled, it will not be thanks to Bulgarian institutions but their associates. This is the gravest accusation against a country, Bulgaria, which has become a convenient corridor for dirty money for decades.
Armando.info republishes this text with the express authorization of the media Bivol from Sofia, Bulgaria.
Translated from Bulgarian with Deepl, edited by Armando.info.
