The National Revenue Agency announced that it has formed a new department – “Prevention and Counteraction against Money Laundering” under the Directorate for Supervision of Gambling and Gambling Activities. The unit has been established in accordance with the Gambling Act and the Anti-Money Laundering Measures Act, according to which the state supervision in the field of gambling and related activities shall be carried out by the executive director of the NRA.

This was done through the amendments to the Gaming Act, published in the State Gazette, issue 69 of 4 August 2020. Thereafter, the legislator assigned the state supervision in the field of gambling and related activities to the Executive Director of the NRA, while the Law on Anti-Money Laundering Measures defines the NRA as the supervisory authority with regard to the organisers of gambling games licensed for such activities on the territory of Bulgaria. In this regard, the NRA takes note of the Statement on the Application of the Provisions of the Law on Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Law on Measures against the Financing of Terrorism by the Organisers of Gaming Activities prepared by the NRA.

The Agency recalls that in January 2020 Bulgaria announced the completion of its first comprehensive National Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Risk Assessment. The assessment is being carried out in accordance with the methodology of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts on Money Laundering (MONEYVAL Committee). The NRA also notes the National Risk Assessment Report analysing internal and external risks of money laundering and terrorist financing, prepared by the permanent inter-agency working group, which includes experts from the NRA, the Ministry of Interior, the SANS, the FSC and other government departments.

The NRA document also notes that the National Risk Assessment update report adopted by the interagency working group in February this year. The working group reviewed the weaknesses identified by the MOVEYVAL Committee in preventive legislation against money laundering and terrorist financing and drafted amendments to the AML Act to address these weaknesses, the revenue agency noted.

The continuous increase of threats and vulnerabilities in this respect requires the periodic updating of the National Risk Assessment, the Communication further states. As a result of the report for Bulgaria adopted on 18 May 2022, the country is currently subject to the MONEYVAL Committee’s “Enhanced Monitoring Procedure”. The FATF’s monitoring period ended in June this year, when Bulgaria reported progress, after which the FATF will assess whether there are grounds to include our country in its list of countries under enhanced monitoring.

More information and details on the results of the national assessment can be found on the SANS website – https://www.dans.bg/bg/msip-091209-menu-bul/rezultatirisk-mitem-bg

The NRA also points out that all citizens and organizations that have suspicions or information about money laundering schemes and irregularities in gambling can submit signals to the specially created by the revenue agency e-mail address: illegal_gambling@nra.bg.