Pande Lazarov, former CEO of the power company ESM, was questioned by an investigative judge on Thursday afternoon, after being arrested a few hours earlier outside his home and being taken to the police station Karpos. Lazarov is suspected of taking illegally 190,000 German marks and 300,000 U.S. dollars in commission from German and Chinese firms for deals for delivering equipment for the power stations Oslomej and Kozjak.

The Interior Ministry is accusing Lazarov of abusing his official powers and money laundering. As a top ESM official, he took the money from 1996 to 1998 from the firms MAN TAKRAF Fördertechnik from Leipzig, Germany, and Hainan from China. The money was paid for consulting services in July and August 1998 into two accounts on Lazarov's name at MKB Bank headquartered in Budapest, Hungary. Lazarov then converted the money into U.S. dollars and transferred it to another account in the same bank. In order to conceal all traces, Lazarov transferred the whole amount of approximately 500,000 U.S. dollar to Landenbank of Germany.