Report: How Bobokovi ordered and paid for defamatory articles against Geshev in the USA

The brothers Atanas and Plamen Bobokovi, as well as the wife of the latter – Hristina, pay USD 2 500 per quarter (USD 50 000 per year) for lobbying services of the law firm “Alexandria Group International” to represent them before the US authorities. This is according to a report by the Bobokovi lobbyist in Washington, Marshall Harris, which he submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice on March 31, 2023. In it, Harris reports on lobbying activity for his Bulgarian clients for the period December 2022 – February 2023. Lobbying is legal in the U.S., but attorneys hired by foreign clients are required to file public reports on services rendered.

It is clear from the report of Bobokovi’s lobbyist in the USA that the main task of Marshall Harris in the past quarter was – to discredit the Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev through media publications, moreover through “Free Europe”. The choice of media is hardly accidental, as “Free Europe” is a private corporation, but it is funded by a grant from the US Congress. Thus, any publication directed against a particular individual could be interpreted, albeit perversely, as an official position of the country. Well, it turns out that even accused persons from Bulgaria, such as Atanas and Plamen Bobokovi, can commission a defamatory article against the Bulgarian Prosecutor General in the US, and this through a journalist working for the US editorial office of “Free Europe”. Here are the facts:

Three months, Bobokovi’s lobbyist, Marshall Harris, communicated by e-mail, phone and short text messages at least five times with Todd Prince, “Free Europe’s” senior Washington correspondent. In all cases, the topics discussed related in one way or another to the actions of the Bulgarian Prosecutor’s Office against the Bobokovi in the criminal case against them in Bulgaria for importing hazardous waste and burying it on Bulgarian soil. Three of lobbyist Harris’s contacts with journalist Prince are related to the trip of the Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev to the USA at the end of January this year and his participation in the traditional prayer breakfast, which this year took place on February 2 in Washington. The visit of the Prosecutor General to the American capital sparked a wave of publications in the Bulgarian media, as well as numerous political reactions. Geshev’s appearance in Washington, gave occasion to those publications, connected with former and current “clients” of the prosecution, as well as to his political opponents from “Democratic Bulgaria” and “Prodaljavame Promianata”, to organize another attack against the Prosecutor General. An article by journalist Ted Prince, published in the Bulgarian version of “Free Europe”, was used to suggest that Geshev was not actually a participant in the prayer breakfast. In the end, posts on the Prosecutor’s Office Facebook proved that the Prosecutor General attended the Prayer Breakfast, and was in the same room with international guests from over 100 countries around the world, including King Abdullah II of Jordan.

However, certain media wrote something else a day earlier, and as it turns out, it was far from a coincidence. On the eve of the prayer breakfast, on 1 February, the Bulgarian version of “Free Europe” ran Ted Prince’s article “Not Invited”. The organizer of the prayer breakfast has not heard of Geshev”. The publication in question was immediately reprinted by the websites Dnevnik, Mediapool, SEGA, Club Z, etc. It turns out that just a day earlier, on 31 January – the lobbyist of Atanas, Plamen and Hristina Bobokovi, had a telephone conversation with the author of the publication Ted Prince. Marshall Harris had also indicated the subject of his telephone conversation with the journalist – the visit of the Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev to the US Congress and his participation in the traditional prayer breakfast.

On 12 and 15 February, journalist Ted Prince communicated two more times with lobbyist Marshall Harris, discussing Geshev’s recently visit to the USA by phone, email and text message. Eventually, at the end of March 2023, Ted Prince ran an article in the US version of “Free Europe” about the Bulgarian Prosecutor General’s visit to Washington. Although the formal occasion is Ivan Geshev’s announced revelations of a conspiracy among crime bosses, oligarchs, defendants and accused persons to discredit him and other magistrates and their subsequent removal.
As early as on March 16, Prosecutor No.1, based on the evidence gathered, warned that persons such as Tsvetan Vasilev, Plamen Bobokov, Krasimir Kamenov-Karo and others, actively cooperate through intermediaries in discrediting magistrates and police officers before the US authorities and European institutions. The new messages and conversations circulated by the Prosecutor’s Office last Friday, this time with the direct involvement of Tsvetan Vasilev, as well as of the accused for ordering the murder of former police officer Lyubomir Ivanov – Krasimir Kamenov-Karo, where the name Bobokov is also mentioned, fully confirm Ivan Geshev’s allegations of a common plot to remove him and control the state prosecution. That’s why, it is not surprising that the article published by Ted Prince on 31 March also ignores the revelations of the Bulgarian Prosecutor’s Office and presents Geshev in a negative light.

Probably without being aware of it, but the report of the lobbyist Marshall Harris, connects his clients Bobokovi with another of the Bulgarian oligarchs who pay in the USA to discredit and remove the Prosecutor General – Tsvetan Vasilev.

On 9 February 2023 Marshall Harris had an email correspondence with Congressman Warren Davidson’s office requesting a meeting with a Bulgarian journalist. It is not known whether Davidson responded to the invitation, but to date his interview has not been made public. The name of the Republican member of the U.S. Congress – Warren Davidson became known in Bulgaria on December 23 last year, when he turned out to be the author of a letter to the US Secretary of the Treasury (Treasury Secretary) requesting the sanctioning of Geshev. Even then, a number of publications appeared which revealed that Davidson had sent a letter which was prepared by Tsvetan Vasilev, the former owner of the bankrupt CCB, who has been hiding in Belgrade for nine years. It became clear that in 2022 hired four new lobbyists in Washington; one of them is Ed Royce, a former congressman and Davidson’s fellow party member. It turned out that Ed Royce even financed the re-election campaign of his colleague Warren Davidson in the US House of Representatives.
Confirmation that Davidson’s letter to the US Department of the Treasury was written by Tsvetan Vasilev was presented on Friday by the Bulgarian Prosecutor’s Office. In the circulated chats of the accused Dilyan Georgiev