The first reports about the Panama Papers in Bulgaria revealed that some 150 Bulgarian individuals and 50 local companies are registered in offshore zones in the Bahamas, Seychelles, Panama, the British Virgin Islands and others. This is shown by data of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, who have been working for over a year on the vast amount of information contained in the Panama Papers.

The 24 Hours Daily which is the only media in Bulgaria that has the privilege of official access to the scandalous documents, hastily announced that no Bulgarian politicians were seen among the owners of offshore companies. The Bulgarians in the Panama Papers were entrepreneurs, lawyers, liquidators of companies, etc. However, it is not a big secret that not all Bulgarian politicians are honest people. For years the European Commission has been claiming in its reports that high-level corruption thrives in Bulgaria and nobody opposes it. That is why three options are possible. Corrupt Bulgarian politicians either keep their money buried in the yards of their villas, or they use stooges in a way that nobody would learn who the actual owners of offshore companies are. The third option is that they just have safe deposit boxes in Swiss banks.

The National Revenue Agency has announced that it would request information about the Bulgarian companies and individuals in the Panama Papers. So what?

We are leaving aside the question why should the National Revenue Agency take up the case, since in most countries involved in the scandal governments and special services were those that started requiring detailed information about offshore owners. Let us recall some previous scandals in which Bulgaria was involved, instead. In 2010, the NRA requested information from Berlin about deposits of Bulgarians in Switzerland and Liechtenstein after the German tax office paid € 2.5 million to acquire data about secret accounts in Swiss banks. Berlin responded immediately and provided for free data to the NRA about Bulgarians having deposits totaling 200 million euros. After that in Sofia the curtain was lowered and to this day no one knows anything about these people, or whether they paid their taxes regularly in Bulgaria. During the so-called Swiss Leaks scandal in 2015 it was revealed that a Bulgarian kept 264 million dollars in a Swiss branch of British bank HSBC. 73 other Bulgarians had deposits of 5 million each in the same branch. Information about these Bulgarians was provided to NRA and the prosecution, but just like in the previous cases to this day history remains silent about what followed.

According to Bulgarian legislation, participating in offshore companies is not a crime. Still such a fact can give rise to doubts about evading taxes or about illegally acquired capitals that exceed many times official incomes. But apparently NRA, the Prosecutor's Office, the National Security Agency, etc. prefer to obey the letter of the law. That is why the Panama Papers will not have serious consequences to Bulgarian offshore players.

The Sega Daily recently wrote that "increasing global intolerance towards corrupt elites is a good soil for helping Bulgaria, too. It is bolted firmly to prevent the winds of change reaching it, but they are so strong that could blow away such islands of corruption.” And people hope that this is the future.