Luxembourg-based EU prosecutors seized €320,000 and prevented further loss of money in a suspected fraud involving a Sicilian baker who allegedly used EU agriculture funds for online trading.
The baker from Torrenova, a village between Messina and Palermo, had received the money to “modernise and expand the production of his bakery and […] for baking bread and other baked goods using ancient Sicilian grains,” the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) said in a press release on Wednesday.
However, the unnamed baker allegedly used the funds for online trading instead, EPPO said.
“Thanks to the timely intervention in this investigation, the subsequent payment of €480,000 by the regional authorities was prevented,” the release said. The baker had applied for €800,000 from the European Regional Development Fund.
At the request of EPPO, which investigates crimes against the EU budget, bank accounts were seized. The person remains innocent until proven guilty.
The EU’s Luxembourg-based fraud fighting agency made an urgent request for almost €8 million in extra funding earlier this year, a nearly 10% rise on its current budget to help it deal with a series of impending challenges including the accession of Poland and Sweden also potentially joining.
EPPO makes urgent request for extra €7.8m funding
It is also requesting a 50% increase in its budget for next year as it aims to more than double its workforce. EPPO currently employs 233 staff, including national prosecutors representing each of the participating EU countries, who work with teams in their home countries to investigate and try cases in national courts.
At the end of 2022, more than 1,100 active EPPO investigations were ongoing into estimated fraud of over €14 billion against the EU budget.
Bulgarian job
The Sicilian case is but the latest in a string of investigations by the Luxembourg-based EU fraud busters in recent weeks.
Earlier this week, six companies and four private homes were searched in Bulgaria at the request of EPPO in a suspected case of embezzlement, misuse of EU funds and money laundering linked to the construction of the Zheleznitsa tunnel, the longest in the country.
EPPO’s headquarters are based in this building in the Kirchberg area of Luxembourg City © Photo credit: Julian Pierrot
One of three contractors involved received around €81 million in EU funds. However, the company allegedly “made, in a very short time, several fictitious money transfers amounting to more than BGN 11 million (€5,6 million) to a chain of hollow companies, which led to a withdrawal of high amounts of cash by individuals with criminal records,” EPPO said.
These companies and individuals are also appearing in another ongoing EPPO investigation concerning infrastructure projects in the railway sector.
Fictitious job
Last week, EPPO said it was conducting a pre-trial investigation into a former assistant of a Lithuanian MEP.
The unnamed person is suspected of “non-performance or imitation of the actual functions of a parliamentary assistant, with the aim of fraudulently obtaining remuneration from 2014-2019 and unemployment benefits from 2019-2020,” EPPO said.
The potential damage to the financial interests of the European Union exceeds €500,000.
The suspected fraudster was ordered to wear an electronic bracelet for two months and searches were carried out at the residences of individuals and at the former workplace of the suspect – the headquarters of the Labour Party of the Republic of Lithuania.
Five investigations into potential fraud against the EU budget were launched in Luxembourg last year, with no indictments or convictions in the country in 2023
