site.btaMedia Review: Jan. 23

NEXO CRYPTO PLATFORM CASE

24 Chasa quotes former MP and co-founder of the cryptocurrency platform Nexo Antoni Trenchev, who gave his first live broadcast interviews on NovaTV and bTV on Sunday evening, saying that his company is suing Bulgaria for USD 1 billion in damages due to investigation.

American Chamber of Commerce in Bulgaria (AmCham) CEO Ivan Mihaylov commented on the case Monday on the morning show of bTV. He said that the Nexo case in the United States is over already. According to him, there should be a regulatory framework for this type of crypto banks. Mihaylov added that the cryptocurrency platform has exited the US market after the case there was over, and the corresponding fines were paid. According to Mihaylov, the scandal around Nexo will not directly affect trade relations between the US and Bulgaria.

As part of an international law enforcement operation, prosecution and Interior Ministry officers raided two Nexo offices in Sofia on January 12. The investigation, which started months ago, is looking into money laundering, tax fraud and other offences perpetrated by the cryptocurrency trading platform Nexo. The Bulgarian prosecution service stated that Nexo may have used dummy companies in its business activities. The company's owners, who are Bulgarian, are suspected of having embezzled several billion dollars in assets.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission said on January 19 that it has charged Nexo Capital Inc. with failing to register the offer and sale of its retail crypto asset lending product. To settle the charges, Nexo agreed to pay USD 45 million.

ECONOMY

Telegraph's front-page article reads that "Pub owners want tip tax". The daily writes that Bulgarian pubowners, represented by Bulgarian Association of Catering Establishments (BACE) President Richard Alibegov, demand the introduction of a tax on tips, pointing at Romania as an example. The idea is that the money above the owed amount to the establishments be subject to a minimum levy.  

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Trud daily print has on it frontpage a title on the increase of food prices. The newspaper highlights that cakes and pastries are becoming more expensive due to the rise of the price of eggs.

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Telegraph quotes Kazanlak mayor Galina Stoyanova, expressing her concern about forthcoming changes to a European Commission regulation that would equate essential oils with chemical derivatives. She received in advance information about these intentions of Brussels from her colleague, the mayor of the French twin city of Graz, Jerome Vieux. The two mayors are worried that such changes might be harmful to traditional producers. Another issue is that the status shift of essential oils to chemical derivatives might result in the prohibition of rose oil in the perfume industry. The EU's concern and motive for the regulation is that mass production of essential oils is harmful to the ecological development of the soil.

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24 Chasa features on its frontpage a Trend survey on labour migration in Bulgaria. According to the Trend polling agency, because of the lack of workers in our country, brigades of young men from Nepal and India are working here, their employers import cooks, make hostels for their accommodation. Nearly 20,000 guest-workers are employed in Bulgarian resorts as bartenders and waiters. 6,150 residents from outside the European Union started working in Bulgaria last year, according to the National Employment Agency, while the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) counted 35,000 employees from third countries. Because of new benefits and rising incomes in the country, Bulgaria is becoming increasingly attractive to foreigners from outside the EU. For the time being, the trend for the staff we import to be mainly hotel and restaurant staff remains unchanged.

HOME AFFAIRS

On its morning show, NovaTV reported on a protest in a village near Pavel Banya, Southcentral Bulgaria. In front of a wood processing factory representatives of three settlements gathered to declare that they are against the construction of a formalin production plant. People are worried that it will bring huge damage to the environment in the so-called Rose Valley. A local resident expressed great worry saying that environmental impact of industrial production in the area is clearly visible. According to him, it is absurd to say that the chemical production of formaldehyde resins can be done in an absolutely clean way. Another local said that he is protesting because he wants "this paradise to be preserved". Other locals said they were worried about possible explosions.  

The company building the formaldehyde plant explained that studies have been done so far which indicate that the production will be harmless. Models by the Regional Inspectorate of Environment and Water indicate that there will be a minimal change, but within the norm, in the ambient air quality in terms of the indicator formaldehyde.

The Bulgarian National Television (BNT) and bTV also had onsite crews reporting on the development of the protests.  

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Duma print daily has put on its frontpage an article saying that public transport and post office employees are about to strike. The employees want higher wages and are warning that they are ready to go on an hour-long effective strike.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Chairman of the Bulgarian Foundation Macedonia Viktor Stoyanov commented on the morning show of BNT on the case of the beaten in Ohrid, North Macedonia, secretary of the King Boris III Bulgarian Cultural Centre Hristian Pendikov. Soyanov said that Pendikov will undergo a surgery later on Monday. The Bulgarian state has taken care and two French and two Bulgarian doctors will perform surgery on his jaw, which is broken in three places.

Stoyanov recalled that Pendikov had arrived in Bulgaria without having received good medical care in Ohrid. According to Stoyanov, the hospital there had told him to go home and wait for his turn for surgery.

"The attitude of many state structures in North Macedonia towards Bulgarians is tendentious and discriminatory," Stoyanov stressed, adding, "Early this morning I had conversations with several Bulgarians from North Macedonian, mostly young people, who told me they were planning to emigrate to Bulgaria. I have had many such conversations in the last few days and they all say: 'There is no life for us in North Macedonia'."

Stoyanov was adamant that civil society organisations would not allow ethnic persecution of the Bulgarians from North Macedonia.

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Another topic covered by BNT on Monday was the Bulgarian diaspora in Ukraine. The morning show featured a report about Yuri Palychev, who shared the story of his family, the establishment of a Bulgarian society in Kherson and his family's relocation to the Odessa region. The piece begins by saying that Ukraine is home to one of the largest Bulgarian diaspora, where Bulgarians have preserved their language, culture and traditions.

HEALTHCARE

Another story on Trud's frontpage is about the flu epidemic in several regions in Bulgaria. The daily writes that the flu epidemic will cover the whole country in a week, and in February Bulgarians can expect a second peak, specialists predict, General practitioners warn not to self-medicate with antibiotics, but to follow the advice of the medical professionals. Typical flu symptoms are sudden chills, muscle aches, high fever, sore throat, severe fatigue, and lack of appetite. The acute phase usually passes within three days.

JUSTICE

Trud has an opinion piece by constitutional law expert Borislav Tsekov commenting on Bulgaria's justice system and the need for the adoption of a law on lobbying, entitled "The year is 2324, Bulgaria discusses a law on lobbying". The author writes that the ironic title of his piece is not accidental. On January 19, GRECO - the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) at the Council of Europe, that monitors the corruption environment in individual member states - explicitly recommended Bulgaria to adopt a Lobbying Law. Prior to that, the European Commission, at least since 2003-2004, had consistently recommended the same. Tsekov criticizes Bulgarian politics for being mockingly slow, purposefully delaying the much-needed legislation. He personally testifies to his statements, as the author and sponsor of the first more comprehensive and precise bill in this area, submitted to the National Assembly in 2002, and as co-author of the next one, drafted by the inter-ministerial working group under the auspices of the Ombudsman in 2006-2007, of which he was the coordinator and which included representatives of the government, parliament and the NGO sector (Transparency International, Access Association, Journalists Against Corruption).

According to him, the American model places the administrative burden of compulsory registration and disclosure of information on the objectives, budgets and contacts with the executive and legislative branches of government on the organisations themselves, which carry out lobbying activities by trade. Whereas the European model is much looser and places this burden primarily on EU institutions, which should disclose information about discussions on draft regulations and policies.

COVID-19 AFTERMATH

Telegraph interviews Bulgarian Stoyan Konev, who has been waiting for his luggage stuck in Wuhan for three years now. He shares that he has no intentions of travelling to China any time soon and hopes that his luggage is brough back by a friend who is there now with family. Konev also says that tickets there are very expensive and travel restrictions are still a fact. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Konev used to spend about half of every year in Wuhan.