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ELENA PAMPULOVA
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Elena Pampulova’s managers decided to continue the business with Banev
The Swiss bank Credit Suisse was informed about the murders and cocaine smuggling, which are allegedly related to a Bulgarian gang, but continued to manage money of dubious origin. This was said before the court by the Bulgarian woman who worked in the bank at that time, Reuters reported. Although the Swiss authorities cannot reveal her name, according to various media, it is about the former tennis player Elena Pampulova.
In addition to Credit Suisse, five more are accused in the case of laundering millions of euros, two of them Bulgarians. These are the former wrestling coach Georgi Karamanliev, as well as Pampulova. According to the Swiss prosecutor’s office, our compatriots helped Evelin Banev-Brendo launder money from drug trafficking in the period 2004-2008. Some of the banknotes were carried in cash suitcases, then transferred to offshore companies or used to buy expensive properties in Switzerland. and around the world.
The bank and the accused Bulgarian woman deny having committed illegal acts.
The indictment focuses on the connections that Credit Suisse and Elena Pampulova had with former Bulgarian wrestler Evelin Banev.
The former elite tennis player, named by the Swiss authorities only with initials, is accused of helping to cover up the criminal origin of the money through transactions for over 146 million Swiss francs.
She claims that she warned her managers about various events, including two murders, but they decided to continue their business with Brando.
In a June 2005 e-mail read in court last week, another Credit Suisse banker downplayed press reports linking drug trafficking to the murder of one of Banev’s associates a month earlier. “After the murder, we decided to continue business relations,” the banker wrote in an email. “The (brief and inaccurate) article linking the murder to Spanish cocaine … has not been confirmed.”
About two years later, the victim’s mother was also killed shortly before testifying in an investigation against Banev, Bulgarian Pampulova told the court, prompting her to raise the issue with her managers.
“The questions I received when I talked to my superiors were:“ Is the murdered person a client of the bank? No, it’s not. Is the woman connected to the bank in any way, do you know her? ”The Bulgarian testified before the court, recalling the conversation. I said, “No, I’ve never met her.” And then the reaction was, “Okay, then what’s your problem?” The court also heard that the banker received bonuses of 122,000 Swiss francs in 2006 and 180,000 francs in 2007 and 2008.
The Bulgarian’s managers commented that they remembered too little of the events of that time and trusted the funds of the bank’s legal department in accordance with internal rules.
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