[citation needed] Corpbank’s owner, Tzvetan Vassilev, currently lives in exile in Serbia as the Serbian courts have denied his extradition.
Notably, political analyst Ilian Vassilev has stated that Corporate Commercial Bank is "the victim of an assault" by Bulgaria's Prosecutor's Office and medial mogul and politician Delyan Peevski.
"[6] Financier Vladimir Karolev argues the insolvency of Corporate Commercial Bank was artificial and deliberate.
[8] Meanwhile, Peevski and his fellow party members from DPS introduced а Bill to Parliament modifying the Law on Banking Insolvency retroactively: critics argue the amendments are meant to help Peevski deviate key assets of Corpbank, such as Dunarit and Petrol.
[5] According to Forbes, "Peevski ... is associated with shady dealings going back years: he was briefly investigated for corruption in 2007 but the case was dropped.
Because of the scale of his business interests (including those in his mother’s name), he effectively controls large parts of the Bulgarian economy.
The political mafia is persistently trying to downgrade what happened to Corpbank to a personal conflict between Mr. Peevski and me, which is utterly untrue.
The goal was to acquire Corpbank’s most attractive assets at a low price and to eliminate me as an influencer in the socio-economic life of the country.
[3] Subsequently, the Court of Justice of the European Union established that Bulgaria breached the Directive on deposit guarantee schemes.
[16] According to Forbes, "The central bank denied Corpbank liquidity support, forcing it to close its doors.
[3] The government ultimately brought down Corpbank to remove Vassilev; it protected FIBank to serve political ends.
[17] BNB also made a specific accusation of fraud against Vassilev in relation to the withdrawing of funds in advance of Corpbank's failure.
[17] According to BNB, "Specifically - according to conservators - on June 19 this year, the day before the Corporate Commercial Bank was to be placed in special measures, a third party downloaded and delivered against receipt to the majority owner of Corporate Commercial Bank 205 887 223 BGN equivalent in cash, mostly Euro.
Bulgaria refused, claiming that under Bulgarian law the bank had to be "declared insolvent" before deposit insurance could be paid.
"[3] "Even though we made a solid proposal to the Bulgarian state, we were turned away in the most humiliating manner by the central bank and by the ruling government," Vassilev said.
[3] The Omani Sovereign Wealth Fund sued the Bulgarian government in the International Court for Settlement of Investment Disputes, based in Washington, D.C., for rejecting the rescue plan.
Omani Sovereign Wealth Fund alleged that the rejection breached key principles regarding equal treatment and protection of investors.
[3] The Bulgarian’s office fabricated the accusation, Vassilev said, in order to arrest him and use it as an action to block his and his family’s assets.
The Bulgarian Prosecutor General modified the charging documents, changing the timeframe of the alleged embezzlement from the week of the bank run to the span of several years.
"It was already proven in court that one of the witnesses had forged my signature on documents she presented as proof of the alleged crime," Vassilev said.