The Bulgarian authorities denied citizenship to the sons of businessman Adonyev

The Bulgarian authorities left the citizenship of the two sons of the Russian businessman Sergey Adonyev, the founder of the Yota company. This is reported by the Bulgarian publication “Bivol”, referring to the response of the Ministry of Justice of Bulgaria.

Earlier, this publication, cooperating with the OCCRP consortium of journalists investigating corruption, drew attention to the fact that Adonyev’s sons Luka and Philip, like their father, were on the US sanctions list. , at the end of January drew attention to the fact that Sergei Adonyev himself and two of his sons were on the US sanctions list.

Sergey Adonyev himself, who received Bulgarian citizenship in 2008 “for special merits”, was deprived of it in May 2018. The Ministry of Justice explained the decision by Adonyev’s conviction for fraud in the USA more than 20 years ago. Then the businessman was sentenced to 30 months in prison. After his release, he was extradited from the United States. It is not known why the authorities did not take into account the information about Adonyev’s sentence when granting him citizenship.

Journalists asked the Ministry of Justice why Adonyev’s sons, who became citizens of Bulgaria when they were minors on the basis of their father’s citizenship, still have Bulgarian passports. It follows from the Ministry of Justice’s response to the request of “Bivol” that the Bulgarian citizenship of Luka and Philip Adonyev was canceled “after an additional check, there is a basis for obtaining it.” At the same time, it was canceled retroactively, to the day when Adonyev himself was deprived of his citizenship.

The businessman’s wife Maria remained a citizen of Bulgaria – the Ministry of Justice found no reason to revoke her status.

Bulgaria is a member of the European Union, but at the moment it is not fully covered by the Schengen Agreement. Previously, the country issued citizenship for large investments, thus more than 100 Russians received passports. After that, Sofia refused such a practice.

In 2018, Forbes magazine estimated the businessman’s fortune at 700 million dollars. In early 2018, Russian presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak named Adonyev as one of the sponsors of her election campaign.

The USA imposed sanctions against Adonyev and his sons in January of this year. They are not included in the EU sanctions list.