ENGAGING THE BULGARIAN GOVERNMENT ON IRAN AND

C O N F I D E N T I A L SOFIA 000214 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR ISN, T, AND NEA E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/16/2017 TAGS: PREL EFIN ETTC KNNP PARMR IR BU SUBJECT: ENGAGING THE BULGARIAN GOVERNMENT ON IRAN AND UNSCR 1737 REF: A. SOFIA 186 ¶B. SECSTATE 16917 ¶C. SECSTATE 14071 Classified By: DCM Alex Karagiannis for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (SBU) Post has actively engaged a variety of Bulgarian Government officials on Iran and the impact of UNSCR 1737. On 13 February, the Bulgarian MFA's expert on Iran, Oleg Doychinov, told us that in December 2006 the MFA alerted all relevant agencies about the provisions associated with UNSCR 1737 and the entities and individuals designated in the resolution's annex. He also added that the Council of Ministers will soon issue a formal decree to highlight the resolution and mandate the freezing of any discovered assets to all Bulgarian ministries. ¶2. (SBU) On 14 February, in advance of the Minister's upcoming trip to the United States, the Ambassador discussed reftel C talking points with Bulgarian Minister of Finance Plamen Oresharski. Though Orseharski did not have any immediate feedback, he agreed with the provisions and the need for vigilance and compliance. ¶3. (C) On 15 February, we shared reftel B talking points with Dr. Vasil Kirov, Director of the Bulgarian Financial Intelligence Agency. Kirov was appreciative of the information and assured us that the entities and individuals identified in the resolution's annex would be flagged and that the FIA would initiate a search of Bulgarian financial institutions to uncover any assets associated with the designated entities. Kirov also appreciated the discussion on the inclusion of Bank Saderaat and Bank Sepah on the Department of Treasury's OFAC List. He stated that he encourages all banking compliance officers to use the USG's OFAC list as an information resource and to compare their transactions against the entities designated by OFAC on Iran, North Korea, Terror Finacing, etc. Kirov added that since the USG designated Bank Saderaat in September 2006, Bulgarian banks had filed five suspicion transaction reports (STRs) with his Agency due to suspicious transfers of funds from Bank Saderaat to individuals in Bulgaria. As a result of further investigations by the FIA and the National Security Service (NSS),three of the STRs were closed without incident. As of mid-February 2007, two of the STRs were still open and were being actively investigated. BEYRLE