This week, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Bologna successfully closed an enormous customs fraud investigation with a confiscation of €4 million and a plea bargain of the main defendant. The Italian Financial Police (Guardia di Finanza) in Prato carried out the confiscation order and discovered the fraudulent trade of textiles from China.

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) is carrying out urgent evidence collection activities at the Faculty of Geodesy of the University of Zagreb (Croatia), due to suspicions of subsidy fraud and acts of corruption.

The European Chief Prosecutor, Laura Codruța Kövesi, and the Chief Special Prosecutor, Altin Dumani, signed a working arrangement today between the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) and the Special Anti-Corruption and Organised Crime Structure of the Republic of Albania (SPAK). SPAK is a specialised prosecution service independent from the General Prosecutor’s Office of Albania.

The College of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) appointed today European Prosecutor Petr Klement as Deputy European Chief Prosecutor, to replace Danilo Ceccarelli at the end of his three-year term. He will take on his new role on 29 July 2023.

On 20 June 2023, the Italian Financial Police (Guardia di Finanza) seized around €650 000 in assets from one of the suspects in investigation ‘Cheap Ink’, led by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Venice (Italy).

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Riga (Latvia) carried out 16 searches on 19 June 2023 and seized up to €6 million in assets, in an investigation into a suspected €14 million VAT fraud.

On 14 and 19 June 2023, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) carried out 27 searches in France and the Netherlands, in an investigation into VAT fraud involving car sales, with an estimated damage of €19 million. Four suspects were arrested and dozens of cars seized, as well as more than €1 million in cash.

Three people have been charged with subsidy and procurement fraud, in an investigation led by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office in Zlín (Czechia) into suspected manipulation of a public contract at the National History Museum in Olomouc. The defendants are a public official who worked for the museum and another two former employees.

In an investigation led by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Prague (Czechia), three companies and 13 individuals have been charged with subsidy fraud involving the acquisition of manufacturing machinery, with estimated damages of up to €3 million.

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.