Agriculture: EPPO conducts searches in investigation into €850 000 fraud involving irrigation systems

  The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Iasi (Romania) conducted four searches on Thursday in the Galati county, in an investigation into a €850 000 fraud involving a project for modernising irrigation systems, funded by the EU, https://www.eppo.europa.eu/ informs.   At issue is an agricultural cooperative which obtained funding for one project to modernise irrigation systems, worth €850 000 (RON 4.3 million). One of the suspects is the ‘de facto’ president and the main decision-maker of the cooperative, while the other is the statutory president. According to the investigation, in order to mislead Romania’s Agency for Financing Rural Investments (AFIR), they presented false documents attesting that the cooperative had a board of directors and had held a general assembly to approve the request for financial support, as well as the conditions and technical parameters of the project.    However, from the evidence gathered, it appears that the cooperative did not legally exist or have a board of directors, and did not organise a general assembly to approve the application for funds.    In addition, according to the investigation, the public procurement procedure to select a company to execute the project was manipulated, in order to benefit a pre-determined company, owned by one of the suspects, while being officially administered by his wife.    During the searches, the people under investigation were brought to the EPPO in Iasi to be informed of their status as suspects. Two suspects were placed under judicial control for sixty days, with interdiction to contact other parties in the process, as well as mandatory periodical presentation in the police station of their place of residence.  One of the suspects is already being prosecuted in court for subsidy fraud involving two other projects for irrigation systems, worth €1.7 million.    In order to recover the damage to the EU budget and any judicial expenses, the EPPO also froze bank accounts held by the suspects.    This investigation mobilised several police officers from the EPPO Support Structure in Romania (Structura de Sprijin a procurorilor europeni delegati in România), the Economic Crime Investigation Service within Galati County Police Inspectorate (Serviciul de Investigare a Criminalitatii Economice din cadrul Inspectoratului Judetean de Politie Galati) and specialised intervention units of the Romanian Gendamerie (Gruparea de Jandarmi Mobila ”Alexandru cel Bun” Bacau). All persons concerned are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in the competent Romanian courts of law.   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.