Money transfers from Venezuela did not breach regulations: Bulgarian bank

SOFIA (Reuters) - Money transfers from Venezuela to accounts at Bulgarian bank Investbank did not breach any regulations or international sanctions, the small local lender said on Thursday.

Bulgaria blocked transfers out of the accounts on Wednesday as part of a probe into suspected money laundering, after law enforcement officials said millions of euros were transferred into the accounts from Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA.

Security officials said the bank itself was not under any suspicion of wrongdoing.

Investbank said it did not have any relationships with Venezuelan banks and both incoming and outgoing transfers from the accounts were processed through different lenders in the European Union and the United States.

"The funds under the trust account have been lawfully submitted in line with all regulatory requirements and in compliance with international sanctions," the bank said in a statement.

"There are no sanctioned transactions related to the State Petroleum Company of Venezuela (PDVSA)- Petróleos de Venezuela".

It did not give the value of the funds that had been transferred through the accounts, or say when the transactions occurred.

A senior Bulgarian lawmaker familiar with the situation has said there are about 60 million euros ($68 million) currently in the suspect accounts. He said the information gathered so far pointed to no movement of funds since the start of the year.

The United States imposed sweeping sanctions on PDVSA at the end of January.

($1 = 0.8858 euros)

(Reporting by Tsvetelia Tsolova; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)