Supreme Administrative Court of Bulgaria repeals SGC decision over BGN329m Eurofootball fee
The Bulgarian Supreme Administrative Court has repealed a State Gambling Commission (SGC) decision, which said that Eurofootball – the now defunct operator – owes the state BGN329m (US$169m) in fees and interest.
The SAC stated in its ruling that it didn’t rule on whether or not the amount was due; however, it revoked the sum because it was issued by an ‘incompetent’ public authority (the SGC) last February.
In its statement, the judges said: ‘It is legally illogical and inadmissible that the same authority should be empowered simultaneously to issue the decision and to rule when it is challenged in administrative proceedings.’
The case began a year and a half ago when the Sofia City Administrative Court said that Eurofootball owed the exchequer BGN329m in unpaid state gambling fees for the previous five-year period.
What is more interesting is the story of the former owner of Eurofootball, Vassil Bojkov. The former-gambling mogul had his gambling empire eradicated in 2020 when the Bulgarian authorities outlawed private lotteries, and he subsequently found himself charged with the evasion of more than BGN700m in gambling licence fees.
He was also charged with money laundering, extortion, bribery, murder, attempted rape, trading in influence, unlawful possession of cultural assets and leading an organised crime group.
Bojkov claims that he was forced to pay former-Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov 20% of his business in extortion fees. Both men denied the claims made by Bojikov and were later arrested when they left office but were released after a court found their detention to be unlawful.
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