Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev said discussions with officials from the US Department of Justice focused on the possibility of launching federal prosecutions against individuals accused of circumventing sanctions imposed under the Global Magnitsky Act, as well as those suspected of helping sanctioned individuals avoid the restrictions.
According to Demerdzhiev, the meetings included a deputy attorney general and prosecutors specializing in cases involving sanctions evasion. The talks examined the legal grounds for potential prosecutions, the types of evidence that could support such cases, and ways to strengthen cooperation between the two countries.
“We discussed the possibilities of initiating federal prosecution, the grounds for this, the evidence that can serve for this, we created a channel of communication, and we also established personal contacts between our representatives and representatives of the federal prosecutor's office,” Demerdzhiev said.
The minister expressed confidence that the cooperation would soon produce tangible results. His comments followed a visit to the United States last week, during which he also provided information concerning alleged attempts to bypass Magnitsky sanctions to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) at the US Treasury Department.
