By Mike Sidwell

The Economist reports that Petkov resigned following a leaked intelligence report detailing that “a drug gang had received top-secret internal documents from officials in his ministry, while illegal booze producers gave money to a senior crime-fighter in return for information and the destruction of incriminating evidence.”

According to Balkan Insight: “His [Petkov] ministry has been criticised for failing to root out corruption and curb organised crime. The killings of an author of books on the Bulgarian mafia and the chief of an energy company were killed in two separate incidents in Sofia sparking warnings from the European Union about the country's failure to tackle contract killings.”

Reuters reports that Petkov has admitted to being "responsible for some appointments in the ministry through which I misled the leadership of the country."

Following Petkov’s resignation, Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev told the Sofia branch of his Socialist Party: "There must be clear professional and political outlines in the government from now on," reports Balkan Insight.

Stanishev has since “sacked the ministers of defence, agriculture and health, and named a new interior minister to replace Rumen Petkov,” lists the BBC.

On 28 March, European Commission President Jose Barroso condemned Bulgaria for “failing to deal with organized crime and corruption more than a year after it joined the 27-nation bloc” (Bloomberg). Bulgaria stands the risk of facing “sanctions if the European Commission's mid-2008 report on the country's progress in fighting corruption and organised crime is negative,” according to Balkan Insight.

“The EU suspended payments by some agricultural and transportation projects in February after its anti-fraud office found irregularities in distribution. The bloc has earmarked subsidies of 11 billion euros ([US] $17.3 billion) for Bulgaria through 2013” (Bloomberg).

By Mike Sidwell

According to the Financial Times (FT), two top judges “delivered a fierce rebuke to the government for “failing to recognise the rule of law” and allowing a foreign nation to “pervert the course of justice” in a case that triggered global condemnation.” Lord Justice Moses ruled that: “the Serious Fraud Office had illegally allowed threats by Saudi officials to derail the bribery probe, which was scrapped in December 2006” (FT).

The BBC details how Moses told the High Court: "No one, whether within this country or outside, is entitled to interfere with the course of our justice,” adding: "It is the failure of government and the defendant to bear that essential principle in mind that justifies the intervention of this court."

In an interview with Sky News, Lord Goldsmith, who announced in December 2006 that the investigation into the arms company was to be discontinued, accused the judges of “failing to live in the real world and undermining a key legal principle. He also asserted that: "it was the right decision to take, in the public interest, in order to prevent terrorism."

The Guardian writes that: “His [Lord Goldsmith] intervention follows an indication from Downing Street that Gordon Brown [UK prime minister] is planning a "hands on" operation to ensure that the government faces down any attempt to reopen the inquiry.”

In a press release issued on 24 April, the SFO announced that “the Administrative Court certified that there were points of law of general public importance and granted the Serious Fraud Office leave to appeal to the House of Lords. The SFO will be pursuing this appeal.”

The Economist writes that: “The SFO, anxious not to give the impression that BAE is too big to jail, is examining its dealings in six other countries.”

According to the FT, government ministers “vowed to drive through unprecedented statutory powers to shut down investigations on national security grounds,” just hours after the High Court ruling.

“The Government is bracing itself for further humiliation over its decision to scrap a corruption inquiry into a multibillion pound arms deal between British Aerospace and Saudi Arabia with a powerful international watchdog poised officially to reprimand the UK later this year. It will make Britain just the second country to be reprimanded by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Anti-Corruption Unit” (Independent).

For its part, BAE said: "The case was between two campaign groups and the director of the SFO. It concerned the legality of a decision made by the director of the SFO…BAE Systems played no part in that decision," reports the BBC.

On 21 April, Richard Alderman replaced Robert Wardle as director of the SFO.

By Mike Sidwell

According to the Financial Times (FT), “After months of investigating, a special prosecutor last week [17 April] concluded that Mr Lee, the chairman, breached his financial duty by letting his children buy bonds of Samsung’s affiliates through irregular financial transactions, incurring losses at the companies. He also found that Samsung managed about Won4,500bn ($4.5bn) [€ 2.8 bn] in borrowed-name accounts, and Mr Lee had evaded Won112.8bn [€ 71 million] of income taxes.”

Bloomberg writes that: “The government named a special counsel to investigate allegations by a former Samsung lawyer that the group ran a bribery slush fund,” but they didn't uncover evidence of bribery.

In a televised speech announcing his resignation Lee declared, “I am saddened as there is still much to do and a long way to go, but I am leaving with all the faults of the past,” reports the FT, describing the move as “unprecedented in corporate Korea, where tycoons usually continue to run their business groups even after being convicted of serious white-collar crimes.”

However, according to the International Herald Tribune, “civic groups dismissed the resignation and several other measures announced Tuesday as a shrewd public relations stunt designed to keep Lee out of prison […] and lambasted the special counsel for failing to delve deeper into allegations of embezzlement and bribery.”

Yonhap News writes that if found guilty, the Samsung chairman “could face a sentence of between five years to life in jail. However, few analysts believe that the chairman will serve a jail term.”

Jae-yong, Lee’s only son, stepped down as chief customer officer to “work overseas in a ”tough environment,'' but this doesn't mean the heir apparent of the giant family-run conglomerate is gone for good,” notes the Korea Times. According to Yonhap News, the key question surrounding Samsung, the biggest industrial conglomerate in South Korea, is: “When will the only son of the senior Lee take the helm of the group?”