According to FinTelegram, the Israeli cybercrime principal Gal Barak, sentenced in 2020 to several years in prison for investment fraud and some €4 million in restitution payments, was a friend of Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov. At least Gal Barak and his Bulgarian wife Marina Andreeva gave him and his minister friends nice money gifts and was therefore protected by the state. Boyko Borissov was detained on 17 March 2022 amid a wide-sweeping police investigation linked to probes by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.