The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) announced on Tuesday that it had discovered a criminal group suspected of defrauding subsidies received from European money or from the national budget. Four suspects are accused of fraud and links to the Italian mafia, in the case where they are suspected of providing false letters of guarantee to beneficiaries of EU-funded projects.
The institution led by Laura Codruța Kovesi warns the Ministry of Development about “the existence of possible vulnerabilities in the management of European funds”.
Prosecutors say that the suspects were offering fake letters of guarantee to those companies that benefited from financing on certain projects from EU funds. In exchange for the fake letters of guarantee, they received various amounts of money.
The criminal group would also include companies from the Czech Republic and Latvia, “which did not have the right to issue letters of guarantee nor the financial resources to cover the insured damages”, according to a press release from the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The group is accused of a fraud of 4.3 million euros, money from the European Regional Development Fund, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Regional Operational Program, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office reports in a press release.
According to the quoted source, in this case, home searches were carried out in 2023, both in Romania and in France, and that assets worth 450,000 euros were confiscated. If they are found guilty, the suspects risk between four and 15 years in prison, the EPPO also states.
The European Prosecutor’s Office also says that it notified the Ministry of European Investments and Projects in Romania about “the existence of possible vulnerabilities in the management of European funds, which result in a significantly reduced level of protection of the EU’s financial interests in Romania”.
Prosecutors say they found multiple typologies in multiple cases, and this “generated a high risk of fraud in European-funded contracts.”
The post European Prosecutor Warns Romania of High Fraud Risk in EU Contracts appeared first on The Romania Journal.
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