The Plovdiv Court of Appeal upheld the pre-trial detention order against Prof. Mariela Geneva-Popova, imposed by the Plovdiv District Court, the press office of the Palace of Justice announced on Thursday.
The accused, Geneva-Popova, and Artmed Medical Centre accountant Adrian Belov, who did not appeal his pre-trial measure of bail, have been charged with participating in an organized criminal group allegedly set up to obtain funds unlawfully from the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) budget through fictitious hospital admissions. The alleged scheme involves more than EUR 3 million. The offence carries a prison term of three to 15 years and confiscation of property.
Thursday’s court hearing was adjourned because the defendant suddenly fell ill, requiring emergency medical treatment in an ambulance. Following the necessary medical examinations, which revealed no abnormalities in the defendant’s health, the hearing resumed. Geneva-Popova told the court that she was in good health and expressly insisted that the proceedings continue.
The Court of Appeal accepted that there was reasonable presumption that the defendant had committed the offences with which she was charged and agreed with the District Court’s reasoning that there was no risk of the defendant absconding, but that there was a risk of her committing another offence. The court noted that the case file showed that the criminal scheme under investigation was characterized by remarkable intensity, duration (spanning several years) and careful internal organization, with roles allocated amongst doctors, administrative staff and external intermediaries.
The prosecution’s case alleges the systematic and unlawful large scale siphoning of public funds from the National Health Insurance Fund’s budget, causing damage of EUR 3 million, with over EUR 103,000 transferred to the private medical centre controlled by the defendant through more than 5,000 fictitious hospital admissions, and the drawing up of a vast number of documents containing false information.
The court found particularly reprehensible the use of manipulative practices, such as the substitution of biological material (blood samples) and the fictitious attribution of serious diagnoses to clinically healthy people, to achieve this.
Within this hierarchical structure, the defendant Popova held a key, leadership and organizational role. By utilizing her high academic status as a professor and head of clinic at the largest medical facility in Southern Bulgaria, as well as her position as the majority shareholder of Artmed Medical Centre, she had unlimited practical and administrative powers to direct the activities of her subordinate doctors and staff. The evidence in the case shows that a number of witnesses were completely hierarchically and financially dependent on the defendant and complied with her orders out of fear of professional and financial sanctions.
The appeal court also agreed with the first instance court that there is a real risk that the defendant might influence staff at the medical facility, as well as other witnesses in the case, or manipulate the flow of documents.
According to the court, the only adequate pre-trial measure, proportionate and corresponding to the seriousness of the offences and the high risk to public safety posed by the offender is the one imposed by the District Court, thus the defendant shall be remanded in custody.
The ruling of the Court of Appeal is final and cannot be appealed or protested.
Plovdiv Court of Appeal Upholds Detention Order of Plovdiv Hospital Clinic Head in NHIF Fraud Case 2026 THE NEWS FROM BULGARIA – NEWS AGENCY 2009-2025 2026-10-15 15:39:09
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