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Claim analyzed
Politics“Delyan Peevski is included on one or more international sanctions lists as of April 15, 2026.”
The conclusion
Multiple primary government sources confirm Delyan Peevski's inclusion on international sanctions lists. He was designated on the U.S. OFAC SDN List under the Global Magnitsky Act in June 2021 and on the UK Global Anti-Corruption Sanctions list, with the UK entry confirmed as recently as April 2025. No credible source reports any delisting, and his own public statements as of late 2025 confirm he is appealing the sanctions — meaning they remain in force. The existence of a legal appeal does not constitute removal from a sanctions list.
Based on 17 sources: 14 supporting, 0 refuting, 3 neutral.
Caveats
- Peevski has been actively challenging his U.S. Magnitsky sanctions through legal appeals (as of November 2025), which means his status could theoretically change through court or administrative action in the future.
- Some of the supporting evidence dates to the original 2021 designation rather than providing explicit 2026 confirmation, though official sanctions registries are continuously maintained and would reflect any delisting.
- One source (Source 14) is based on LLM background knowledge rather than independent verification and should not be treated as authoritative evidence.
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Sources
Sources used in the analysis
Remarks: (Linked To: PEEVSKI, Delyan Slavchev). Identifications: Country: Bulgaria. This confirms Delyan Slavchev Peevski remains on the OFAC Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List as of the current date.
Designation Dates: 02-Jun-2021. Addresses: Bulgaria 7 Nezavravka Street, Floor 7, Ap. 28, Sofia, 1113, Bulgaria. Profile Id: 32059. Delyan Slavchev Peevski is listed on the OFAC SDN List.
The Director Disqualification Sanction was imposed on 09/04/2025. UK Statement Of Reasons: Delyan PEEVSKI is an involved person under the Global Anti-Corruption Sanctions Regime.
Today, we are announcing the public designation of former Bulgarian public officials Alexander Manolev, Petar Haralampiev, Krasimir Tomov, and Delyan Slavchev Peevski, as well as current Bulgarian public official Ilko Dimitrov Zhelyazkov, due to their involvement in significant corruption. The Department of the Treasury also has designated Peevski, Zhelyazkov and Bulgarian oligarch Vassil Bojkov, along with 64 entities owned and controlled by Bojkov and Peevski, for their roles in public corruption, pursuant to Executive Order 13818, which builds upon and implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
Delyan Slavchev Peevski: Peevski was designated on June 2, 2021, for being a foreign person who is a current or former government official, or person acting for or on behalf of such an official, who is responsible for or complicit in, or who has directly or indirectly engaged in, corruption, including the misappropriation of state assets, the expropriation of private assets for personal gain, corruption related to government contracts or the extraction of natural resources, or bribery.
Delyan Peevski is subject to sanctions. See the individual program listings below. They are also a politically exposed person. OpenSanctions aggregates data from official sources including OFAC and UK sanctions lists.
On February 10, 2023, the UK announced sanctions against Delyan Peevski, a former Member of Parliament and media mogul, under the UK's Global Anti-Corruption sanctions regime, in coordinated action with the US.
Delyan Peevski—a politician sanctioned by the United States and the United Kingdom for alleged corruption—has become one of the most influential figures in Bulgarian politics.
Peevski is alleged to have regularly engaged in corruption... FAMILY MEMBERS SUBJECT TO SANCTIONS: A son and daughter, both minors are sanctioned under the Section 7031(c)... This makes them ineligible for entry into the United States.
A report from March 16, 2026, provides a comprehensive expert analysis confirming Delyan Peevski's inclusion on sanctions lists under the Global Magnitsky Act (USA) and the UK's Global Anti-Corruption Sanctions Regime, noting that the sanctions have an extraterritorial effect.
On June 2, the United States imposed economic sanctions on Delyan Peevski, a former member of parliament, under the Global Magnitsky Act for his 'extensive roles' in corruption in Bulgaria.
As of March 20, 2026, Delyan Peevski, leader of 'DPS-New Beginning,' is referred to as 'sanctioned for corruption by the USA and Great Britain.'
The Sanctions Update is compiled by Steptoe's International Trade and Regulatory Compliance team... No mention of changes or delistings for Delyan Peevski in the April 13, 2026 update, implying ongoing status quo for known sanctions.
As of April 2026, Delyan Peevski remains listed on the U.S. OFAC Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List under the Global Magnitsky sanctions program, with no reported delisting. This is consistent with ongoing enforcement of E.O. 13818 designations, which persist unless formally removed by Treasury action.
On November 6, 2025, Delyan Peevski stated, 'I am appealing the American [Magnitsky sanctions], when it concludes, the English one will also conclude,' confirming the ongoing nature of both US and UK sanctions against him.
The US State Department has detailed information marked “Secret”, on which its decision to include Delyan Peevski in the “Magnitsky” list is based. This is clear from the lawsuit that Peevski has filed in the United States, claiming that his sanctions be lifted. Radev responded by recalling the international sanctions under the Magnitsky Act, to which Peevski was subjected by the United States and Great Britain.
In April 2021, the US administration blacklisted Peevski for participating in corruption schemes. The former lawmaker is challenging the sanctions, and the MRF party continues to defend him publicly before Bulgarian and European institutions, claiming that there is no evidence that he is involved in corruption.
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Expert review
How each expert evaluated the evidence and arguments
Expert 1 — The Logic Examiner
The logical chain from evidence to claim is direct and robust: Sources 1 and 2 confirm OFAC SDN listing (designated June 2, 2021); Source 3 confirms UK Global Anti-Corruption Sanctions designation (as recently as April 9, 2025); Sources 4, 5, 7, 10, 12, and 13 collectively corroborate ongoing status with no delisting reported, and Source 15 — Peevski's own November 2025 statement — confirms the sanctions are still active (he is appealing them, not celebrating their removal). The opponent's argument commits an argument from ignorance (appeal to possibility of delisting) and a false equivalence (treating a law-firm newsletter's silence as equivalent in evidentiary weight to affirmative official registry entries); an active legal appeal does not constitute delisting, and the absence of mention in Source 13 is not evidence of removal — it is simply neutral silence, which cannot logically override multiple affirmative official sources. The claim that Peevski is on one or more international sanctions lists as of April 15, 2026 follows directly and soundly from the evidence, with no credible counter-evidence of delisting presented.
Expert 2 — The Context Analyst
The claim omits that sanctions status can change via delisting or court/administrative action, and several cited items are historical designation announcements rather than explicit “still listed as of 2026” confirmations; however, the key context is that the primary, live government registries (OFAC SDN entry and the UK Sanctions List) are themselves the operative, up-to-date references and the evidence presented does not indicate any delisting, while appeals (e.g., Source 15/17) do not imply removal. With that context restored, the overall impression remains accurate: Peevski is included on at least one international sanctions list as of the claim date (Sources 1, 3), so the claim is true in substance despite some framing that leans on older designation-date documents (Sources 4–5).
Expert 3 — The Source Auditor
The most authoritative and independent sources here are unambiguous: Source 1 (OFAC Sanctions List Search, a direct U.S. Treasury government registry), Source 3 (UK Sanctions List, a direct UK government registry dated April 9, 2025), Source 4 (U.S. Department of State), and Source 5 (Federal Register) all confirm Peevski's designation — these are primary government sources with the highest possible authority. Source 7 (GOV.UK) further confirms the UK designation. The opponent's argument that an active legal appeal (Sources 15, 17) could mean delisting has occurred is speculative: appeals do not automatically result in delisting, and no source — including the temporally proximate Source 13 (Steptoe, April 13, 2026) — reports any delisting; Source 13's silence on a change is actually consistent with the status quo remaining intact, not evidence of removal. The claim that Peevski is on one or more international sanctions lists as of April 15, 2026 is strongly confirmed by multiple high-authority, independent, official government sources, with no credible evidence of delisting.
Expert summary
The arguments
Two AI advocates debated this claim using the research gathered.
Argument for
Official government sanctions registries explicitly list Delyan Slavchev Peevski as a designated person: he appears on the U.S. Treasury OFAC SDN entry (OFAC Sanctions List Search, Source 1) and is designated under the UK Global Anti-Corruption Sanctions Regime on the UK Sanctions List (Source 3). These independent, primary sources are reinforced by U.S. State Department and Federal Register documentation of his June 2, 2021 Global Magnitsky-related designation (Sources 4–5) and by later UK government communications confirming UK sanctions (GOV.UK, Source 7), establishing that as of April 15, 2026 he is included on one or more international sanctions lists.
Your reliance on Source 1 and Source 3 as definitive proof of current status is a classic appeal to outdated authority — Source 1 dates to June 2021 and Source 3 to April 2025, neither of which confirms Peevski's listed status as of April 15, 2026, especially given that Source 15 explicitly confirms he is actively appealing the U.S. Magnitsky sanctions in court, creating a live legal mechanism by which delisting could have occurred in the intervening period. Moreover, you conveniently ignore that Source 13 — the only source dated within two days of the claim date — contains no affirmative confirmation of Peevski's continued designation, and your failure to address this conspicuous silence means your entire argument rests on the unproven assumption that no delisting has occurred, which is precisely what remains unestablished.
Argument against
While sources such as Source 1 and Source 2 confirm an OFAC designation from June 2021, and Source 3 references a UK sanction, the critical question is whether these designations remain legally in force as of April 15, 2026 — and the evidence is fatally undermined by Source 15 and Source 17, which confirm that Peevski has actively challenged and is appealing the Magnitsky sanctions in U.S. courts, raising the real possibility that a court order or administrative delisting could have occurred in the gap between the most recent sources and the current date. Furthermore, Source 13, the most temporally proximate authoritative source dated April 13, 2026, conspicuously contains no affirmative confirmation of Peevski's continued listed status, and reliance on Source 14 — an LLM's own background knowledge — as evidence of ongoing sanctions status is circular and self-referential, rendering the evidentiary chain insufficient to conclusively establish the claim as of April 15, 2026.
Your argument commits an argument-from-ignorance: the fact that Peevski is appealing sanctions (Sources 15 and 17) does not evidence delisting, while the primary, live government registries still list him—OFAC's SDN entry linked to “PEEVSKI, Delyan Slavchev” (Source 1) and the UK Sanctions List designation under the Global Anti-Corruption regime (Source 3). You also miscast Source 13: a weekly law-firm roundup's silence is not “conspicuous” proof of removal, and it cannot outweigh affirmative, official list entries (Sources 1 and 3) plus U.S. government documentation of the designation (Sources 4–5).