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Whistleblowers are an essential source of information for investigation and public prosecution services. The correct transposition and effective implementation of Directive (EU)2019/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2019 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law (Whistleblowers’ protection Directive) therefore is of direct operational relevance for the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. If you fail to protect whistleblowers, you limit detection. If you do not detect, you cannot investigate and prosecute.

Eighteen searches were conducted yesterday, 29 June 2022, in the Bulgarian towns of Petrich and Obzor as part of an ongoing investigation by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) into fraud relating to EU agricultural funds.

The manager of a wine company in Plovdiv (Bulgaria) has been convicted of attempted fraud relating to EU funds aimed at promoting the export of wine outside of the European Union. The manager submitted forged documents during the funding application and was sentenced to one year of imprisonment and a fine. Almost €400 000 worth of damages to the EU budget was prevented. This is the first conviction in an investigation by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Bulgaria.

The EPPO filed its first indictment in Czechia yesterday, 28 June 2022, against 3 persons and 3 legal entities accused of subsidy fraud, damage to the financial interests of the European Union and the legalisation of proceeds of criminal activity. The file consists of almost 19 000 pages.

Following the investigative activities and the house searches in Romania and Austria on 28 June 2022, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office made official accusations against 12 people for:

participation in an organised criminal group,
the use or presentation in bad faith of false or inaccurate documents or incomplete statements, if the deed results in the unjust obtaining of funds from the general budget of the European Union, illegal obtaining of national funds,
money laundering

Twenty-two individuals, including high-level public officials, are suspected of fraud regarding agricultural funds in Sicily. At the request of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), officers of the Italian Financial Police (Guardia di Finanza) of Palermo carried out a judicial warrant this morning, 28 June 2022: 12 suspects were placed under house arrest, and 10 are obliged to appear before the judicial police. Money and assets worth approximately €2.5 million were preventively seized.

Today, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) moved against an organized criminal group active in Romania and Austria. Since early this morning, 160 house searches are ongoing, including at the homes of some civil servants and headquarters of public institutions, as a part of an ongoing investigation of 6 months into alleged fraud concerning European and Romanian funds of more than €5 million, laundered through a complex financial mechanism. About 30 people will be brought in for questioning.

Three Latvian citizens have been convicted before Riga’s Vidzeme District Court for fraud committed in a procurement process for the construction of two high tunnel greenhouses, subsidised by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD). It is the first conviction in Latvia since the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) started its operations.

Last week, an investigation of the Vilnius office of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) led to arrests of 15 suspects and more than 50 searches in Lithuania, carried out by the Special Investigation Service STT (Specialiųjų tyrimų tarnyba). The suspects were allegedly involved in an illicit enrichment worth at least €250 000 and linked to a public procurement procedure funded by the European Union (EU).