Retired Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) is lobbying on behalf of the wife of a Bulgarian banking tycoon.
Royce is part of a small Brownstein Hyatt team working on Bulgarian "anti-corruption reform" issues for Bulgarian eonomist Antoaneta Vassileva, according to a disclosure filed on Friday.
In 2017, Bulgaria accused Vassileva's husband, Tsvetan Vasilev, of embezzling the equivalent of 1.3 billion USD from one of the country's largest banks, Corporate Commercial Bank. The bank failed in 2014, during Vasilev's time as chair and majority shareholder. The family has maintained Vasilev's innocence and claims that Bulgaria's charges against him and other other family members were retaliatory. Others, including former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, have also spoken out about Vasilev's alleged innocence.
This isn't the first time that Tsvetan's family has turned to U.S. lobbyists for its cause. From two years beginning in 2017, Vassilev hired two firms, Schmitz Global Partners and Jefferson Waterman International, to help bring Magnitsky Act sanctions against certain Bulgarian officials. The U.S. reportedly decided against the sanctions in 2019.
The Brownstein disclosure does not specify the nature of the "anti-corruption reform" it is working toward or mention whether it will involve the Magnitsky Act.
