The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Iași carried out eight searches in Galați county, Romania, as part of an investigation into a EUR 1.7 million fraud scheme involving projects for irrigation systems funded by the European Union. Several people were brought to the EPPO in Iași to be informed of their status as suspects, and three of them were placed under judicial control for sixty days.

To recover the damage to the EU budget and any judicial expenses, the EPPO also seized six plots of land worth roughly EUR 500,000 and froze bank accounts held by the suspects.

The European prosecutors said the investigation targets an agricultural cooperative that obtained funding for two projects to modernize irrigation systems, worth EUR 1.7 million (RON 8.6 million). According to them, the public procurement procedure to select a company to execute the projects was manipulated so as to benefit a pre-determined company owned by the mother of one of the members of the cooperative. 

“It is understood that legal representatives of the cooperative and the selected company submitted false documents certifying that the beneficiary of the funds was not in a conflict of interest with the company that was awarded the contract, thus misleading Romania’s Agency for Financing Rural Investments (AFIR),” reads the EPPO press release.

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) is the independent public prosecution office of the European Union. It is responsible for investigating, prosecuting, and bringing to judgment crimes against the financial interests of the EU.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

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