Bulgarian MP Delyan Peevski Withdrawing from Bulgartabac

Delyan Peevski, a controversial Bulgarian lawmaker and businessman, said on Friday he was selling his stake in Bulgartabac, a Bulgarian tobacco joint-stock holding company.

Peevski, whose name came to the spotlight after he was appointed to head the national domestic and counter-intelligence agency DANS in 2013, triggering nationwide protests, had a majority stake in Bulgartabac.

In a statement sent out to media outlets in Bulgaria, he explained that recent attempts at discrediting Bulgartabac through the use of his own name was aimed at hurling false allegations and embroiling "Bulgartabac in political intrigues".

"I cannot allow at all" the involvement of Bulgartabac in such developments, which is the goal of "my opponents", the MP of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) party made clear.

"Neither can I allow the negative campaign to affect more than 100 000 tobacco growers whose livelihoods largely depend on Bulgartabac's activity".

"Having this in mind, I declare I am withdrawing from the ownership of Bulgartabac, with the shareholding company, whose majority owner I am, selling its stake."

The development comes against the backdrop of moves by Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov this week to ditch several public procurement procedures (the biggest being about a major motorway) where firms allegedly linked to Peevski were involved, citing doubt as to the transparency of tenders. Borisov's actions have fuelled speculation about the fate of Peevski, recently targeted by Der Spiegel magazine and dubbed by it part of "the iceberg of corruption".

Bulgartaback brings together a total of 11 subsidiaries across the tobacco-growing regions of the country.

It has been targeted by a several publications and studies over the past few years suggesting its products take a major share in cigarettes smuggled from Bulgaria into Turkey.

Recently, reports about such activity reemerged in relation to news spread by Turkish media outlets about a travel ban issued by Ankara on both Peevski and the DPS's honorary chairman, Ahmed Dogan.

The ban has not yet been confirmed.

Peevski's own share in Bulgartabac is not publically known, but his participation in NSN Investment, the majority shareholder, was unveiled in the summer of 2015.

Earlier in February, Bulgartabac launched a media campaign warning against attempts at tarnishing its reputation aimed at "creating a negative social attitude".

It warned that, being well positioned in the Middle East and elsewhere and employing "directrly or indirectly" tens of thousands of people in Bulgaria, it was "structurally impotant for the Bulgarian economy, having paid BGN 3 B to the state in taxes, insurance contributions, and excise duties.