Three individuals and one company have been charged with subsidy fraud involving a disinfectant production facility, in an investigation led by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Liberec (Czechia), with an estimated damage of up to €800 000.
The managing director of the company is accused of colluding with two accomplices to artificially inflate the price of the machines necessary to manufacture disinfectants, in order to obtain a subsidy of €800 000 (CZK 19 675 000) from the EU’s European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) - Operational Programme Enterprise and Innovation for Competitiveness.
While the subsidy was only to cover 50% of the acquisition costs, due to the deliberate overestimation, the defendants were able to acquire the technology without spending their own funds, as was required under the project, and to keep approximately €375 000 (CZK 9 million) of the subsidy for themselves.
In order to recover the damage to the EU budget, the Czech police (Policie České republiky) seized the production facility, as well as assets and real estate of the defendants.