(Luxembourg, 10/03/2025) - The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Timișoara (Romania) has indicted nine individuals and two companies for subsidy fraud, forgery and bribery, involving three projects regarding the development of fruit harvesting and processing, with a value of over €1.4 million. A tenth individual confessed and signed a plea bargain.
As previously reported, the investigation showed that between February 2019 and June 2024, the suspects, including a mayor, successfully applied in the name of two companies for three projects financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD). They allegedly falsified documents regarding the information of the beneficiary of the projects and the employees of the companies to prove their eligibility to apply for the projects.
Two suspects, the mayor and the accountant, were in pre-trial detention since November 2024 and the European Delegated Prosecutor in charge of the investigation will propose to the judge to maintain their state of arrest during the trial. Another six individuals, including a lawyer and two public officials, were subject to preventive measures.
The two public officials are indicted for the forgery of their control reports and thus helping the mayor and his accomplices to unlawfully obtain the EU funding. One of the two is also indicted for receiving bribes, on two occasions.
The lawyer is indicted for helping the mayor and his accomplices to unlawfully keep the EU funding and for favoring other defendants by influencing the witnesses. A tenth suspect confessed to similar facts and accepted a sentence of three years’ imprisonment under supervised probation, as part of a plea bargain.
EPPO seized buildings, lands and money belonging to the suspects and will propose to the judge to maintain the seizures to allow the recovery of the damages.
If found guilty, the suspects face between three and ten and a half years’ imprisonment.
All persons concerned are presumed innocent until proven guilty in the competent Romanian courts of law.
The 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.