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€740 000 seized in EPPO investigation into misuse of EU funds in Czechia

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At the beginning of March (7 March 2023), the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Zlín (Czechia), together with the Czech Police, seized money and real estate properties worth €740 000 from a suspect and his company. On Monday this week (20 March 2023), the police brought charges against both the suspect and the company.

Between 2020 and 2021, the suspect – who was the beneficiary of a project financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) – and his company used five construction machines for mining activities, for which they had received €650 000 (CZK 16.2 million) in subsidies from the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade. According to the investigation, they did not use the machines in the location specified for the project implementation, and therefore knowingly violated the conditions of the project. Consequently, they caused damage to the EU budget.

The Regional Police Directorate of the Moravian-Silesian Region in Ostrava (Krajské ředitelství policie Moravskoslezského kraje v Ostravě) gave extensive support to this investigation.