During a private meeting in Washington last February, Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert M. Kimmitt warned Bulgaria’s Finance Minister that the Economic and Investment Bank (EI), chaired by the girlfriend of powerful Sofia mayor and presidential aspirant Boiko Borissov, was a target of a North Korean money-laundering effort.

EI Bank board Chairwoman Tsvetelina Borislavova, who acknowledged in an interview with CQ that she was “living with” Borissov, said she had been informed of Kimmitt’s warning “personally, by the finance minister,” Plamen Oresharski, upon his return from Washington last February.

But she said the tip was based on “false information” concocted by political enemies of her boyfriend Borissov, who before he became mayor last year was a top official in Bulgaria’s powerful Interior Ministry.

Drama ...