Out of 46 investigations completed so far, only 31 owners of luxury cars had sufficient income declared to be able to afford their purchases. Among the 15 cases in which insufficient income had been declared to justify expensive purchases were owners of car fleets worth more than a million leva. Among the vehicles in these car fleets were limousines, Porsches, Mercedes and Bentleys, Krassimir Stefanov, head of the National Revenue Agency (NRA) said on October 27.

One company, whose only form of income consisted of loans from one private person and two legal entities, was found to own 209 cars, including a Bentley, Bulgarian news agency BTA quoted Stefanov as saying.

The investigations, which the NRA announced on June 22 2009, are part of broader checks into the income of owners of luxury homes and yachts. In total, more than 100 owners of luxury cars were to be investigated, NRA said in June.

Another company, which owed 2.5 million leva to credit institutions, had received 1.3 million leva in loans from individuals and other firms to cover leasing costs of luxury cars, while the company's owner had provided a 200 000 leva two-year loan to the company for the purchase of a Bentley.

One owner of luxury cars claimed he had financed his purchases with 300 000 euro in transfers from an off-shore company, BTA said.

In an interview with Bulgarian National Radio in May 2009, Stefanov said the NRA was "not at war with rich people". Instead, the agency targeted people who demonstrated a standard of living that was incompatible with their tax declarations.