February 18 (BTA) – Former Bulgarian Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov was stopped at the Kalotina Checkpoint (on Bulgaria’s border with Serbia) on Friday afternoon when the leased SUV he was driving proved to be reported as stolen and wanted by Interpol Russia, Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) reported on Saturday. The news was confirmed to BTA by the Interior Ministry press centre, which specified that the vehicle had been halted for a routine check when it was detected as wanted. Goranov explained to a BNR reporter that he had leased the vehicle back in 2020. He returned from the checkpoint, left the car in Dragoman and then crossed the border by another car. He will be back home on Sunday. The Interior Ministry is checking how the stolen car – a Toyota Land Cruiser, had found its way in Bulgaria. An investigation into the case is forthcoming. The SUV is still nominally owned by Moto Pfohe, a major company that represents several auto brands in Bulgaria. The company’s manager is Atanas Fournadjiev, Vice President of the Bulgarian Football Union. BNR quoted him as saying that the car theft organized crime often resorts to this trick when more expensive cars are involved: they forge the numbers of a stolen car and replace its chassis and engine with the chassis and engine of a legitimate car. The result is a clone. “We have three such cases at present. One is a Range Rover Evoque that has been purchased from the manufacturing plant and has been cloned, and this clone is listed by Interpol as wanted,” Fournadjiev said. RY/LG //
(DF) Ex-Finance Minister Goranov Drives Car Reported as Stolen, Stopped at Border
