Bulgarian Authorities Uncover Manufacturers of Pirated CDs Worth EUR 19M

The Bulgarian authorities uncovered two manufacturers of pirated CDs operating in two legal plants in the capital of Sofia and in the town of Plovdiv, southern Bulgaria, in a major police operation carried out last month in cooperation with the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium and European Police Office (Europol). The sale of the illegal discs generated profits totaling EUR 19 million (USD 26 million).

The police allegedly seized 500,000 pirated CDs (box sets with latest songs, films, business software, games and TV series), from the two plants in Sofia and Plovdiv and designated for companies in Netherlands and Belgium.

At the beginning of October, the Bulgarian authorities received information on illegal CD production on the Bulgarian territory after the unnamed Dutch and Belgian companies placed an order for production of approximately 200,000 CDs, which were supposed to be completed by the end of October.

The police detected a faxed order from the Belgian company for approximately 100,000 CDs. Despite the fact that the owner of the Plovdiv company had been warned that the Belgian firm had no copyrights over the ordered titles and that the production of these CDs would be illegal, the Bulgarian company accepted the order and shipped the CDs to Tilburg, the Netherlands. The authorities tracked the shipment and detained the truck with Bulgarian license plates carrying 100,000 CDs.

The two manufacturers, identified by the initials DG and SV, are known to the police for producing and distributing thousands of pirated CDs in 1999 and 2000. It is not known whether the charges have been pressed against them.

For more information, please contact Milena Bogoslovova or Aleksandra Pavlovic.

Source: Focus News Agency