The Bulgarian prosecution has frozen €14mn in bank accounts of several companies related to suspected high-level corruption concerning the distribution of EU funds, chief prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov told reporters on October 8, daily Dnevnik reported.

The case, initially revealed by the independent investigative news outlet Bivol.bg, attracted the attention of Bulgarian citizens and international media after in mid-September the police arrested two investigative journalists, Dimitar Stoyanov of Bivol.bg and Attila Biro of Romanian RISE project, while they were tracking down the destruction of documents allegedly proving the corruption scheme.

Bivol.bg has informed the Bulgarian police about the case, and published an article based on documents it has obtained.

According to the publication, based on Bivol.bg’s data, between November 2013 and February 2015, the consultancy revenues of the group of five companies totalled BGN7.2mn (€3.7mn), and commission fees paid reached BGN4mn.

According to the news outlet, the media has documents proving that GP Group — one of the biggest construction companies in Bulgaria — was involved in the scheme. The destroyed documents allegedly were from the company's office. In a statement on September 14, GP Group denied being involved in any corruption schemes and said it has not destroyed documents.

A few days after the arrest of the journalists, Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev also alerted the prosecution to the case, based on the documents published by Bivol.bg and the investigative authorities launched a probe.

Tsatsarov said that the companies whose bank accounts were frozen were related to GP Group but did not reveal their names.

Meanwhile, the European Commission plans to alert its anti-fraud office, OLAF, to the same case, Dnevnik reported, quoting an unnamed spokesperson.