Undercover agent Alexei Petrov has blamed the banking system for his arrest on suspicion of heading an organised crime group, Bulgarian BTA news agency said on February 18 2010.

On his way to court Petrov said that he had impinged upon some vested interests in the Bulgarian banking system and in return he had been arrested.

He said he had sent a letter to Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov in which he described a model for lowering banks' interest rates which were currently seven to eight per cent higher than the European Union average.

According to Petrov, the only winner in the current situation was the Bulgarian banking system. He also said that he would name the banks who had benefited from high interest rates. Hours later Finance Ministry said that it had never received such a letter from Petrov and neither did the Council of Ministers administration.

Talking to reporters in the city of Plovdiv the same day Prime Minister Boiko Borissov said that the state was in no way capable of forcing private banks lower their interest rates and anyone who new a bit about finance could understand that.

Petrov said that over the past 20 years he had been working for the state "honestly and cleanly" for which he had received a number of decorations.

The only protection he had enjoyed over this time was the fact that he had stayed away from politicians, public officials and crime bosses, Petrov also said.

Petrov blamed Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov for acting in the manner of the 1946 communist-show trials where hundreds were sentenced to death for being alleged enemies of the state.

Petrov claimed he was a victim of a plot by both the Interior Ministry and the State Agency for National Security.

Petrov was among seven people arrested on February 9 as part of a police operation dubbed Octopus. The operation was launched against an organised crime group suspected of economic offences, extortion, money laundering, tax evasion, prostitution, racketeering and human trafficking.

A few months ago it became clear that since 2000 he had been working as an undercover agent for the Bulgarian secret services. This triggered serious questions about who had appointed him and what was the work he has been doing over the past 20 years.