In just five days, the State Agency for National Security (SANS) has turned from the country’s most esteemed special service, fighting top level corruption, into one perceived to be hostage to personal conflicts and alleged ties to organised crime.  

The storm engulfing the brainchild of former prime minister Sergei Stanishev seems so powerful that it now threatens its very existence, with Prime Minister Boiko Borissov threatening to shut down the agency unless there is change.

The first signs of SANS’ impending crisis came in the autumn of 2008 when Ivan Drashkov was dismissed from his post as deputy chairperson. Then prime minister Stanishev, at the time the only person controlling SANS’ work given the absence of a parliamentary committee for this purpose, explained the surprise move with a report compiled by SANS head Petko Sertov on Drashkov’s alleged wrongdoings.

Following Drashkov’s dismissal, Tsvetlin Yovchev, head of SANS’ counter-intelligence directorate, also left the agency. This was enough for the media to conclude that two opposing teams were working in SANS. On one side were Sertov and his personal adviser Alexei Petrov.

On the other were Drashkov and Yovchev with Stanishev somewhere in between. Less than a year later, what had started with Drashkov’s dismissal became a public scandal worthy of a Hollywood political thriller. It started with the resignations of Sertov and Petrov after Borissov’s party won the July 5 2009 elections, sending Stanishev’s Bulgarian Socialist Party into opposition.

Although Sertov was given the cosy position of Bulgaria’s consul in Thessaloniki, Borissov’s appointment of Yovchev as his successor showed that the two opposing circles would soon clash once more. This was accompanied by Borissov’s relentless denunciations of Stanishev, blaming him for every aspect of the economic, social and moral crisis afflicting Bulgaria and calling for prosecutors to scrutinise every deal signed by Stanishev’s government.    

The saga reached boiling point on October 24 when, at a special news conference, Borissov said that Petrov had given him a report commissioned by SANS in 2008. It reportedly contained classified information about alleged corrupt activities of top government employees.

According to Borissov, the Cabinet records showed that Stanishev had received the report. But then the trail went cold. Borissov asked prosecutors to probe why Stanishev had held back a report revealing data about political corruption. Borissov also asked prosecutors to check how it was possible for Petrov, who is no longer a SANS employee, to have access to classified reports.

Two days later, what is believed to be the report Borissov procured from Petrov appeared on the internet. It tells how two groups in SANS were fighting for control over the agency - and the state - in pursuit of personal goals. The two groups’ leaders were well known - Sertov and Drashkov.

Drashkov wasted no time, and on October 28 gave his first extensive interview after his dismissal to bTV. He blamed Stanishev and Sertov for SANS’ crisis. He accused Sertov of abdicating his duties and leaving the agency in disarray; Stanishev was accused of allowing this to happen by ignoring Drashkov’s complaints, one of which was a memo Drashkov sent to Stanishev on his last day at work (which coincided with the date of the report Borissov received from Petrov).

Some agency staff had apparently behaved like organised crime groups under Sertov’s rule. While others reportedly made extortion attempts against reputable business people, according to Drashkov’s recollections of his time at SANS.

Until now Drashkov is the only person involved in the scandal to comment on it, apart from Stanishev who was interrogated by prosecutors on October 28. Stanishev said that he did not abuse his powers and the whole story was part of Borissov’s plan to shut down SANS and divert public attention from economic problems. Sertov and Petrov were interrogated a day earlier, but declined to comment.