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🇭🇷 Croatia /Disasters & Emergencies

EPPO indicts three individuals and company over €2.5 million fraud for earthquake reconstruction funds

From Večernji List · () Croatian

Translated from Croatian and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources In the courts
  • Croatia's EPPO has indicted three individuals and one company for defrauding the EU Solidarity Fund.
  • The accused allegedly submitted falsified documents to obtain approximately 2.5 million euros for post-earthquake reconstruction.
  • If convicted, the defendants face up to ten years in prison, and company assets have been frozen.

The European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) in Zagreb has indicted three individuals and a company for subsidy fraud and document forgery, seeking to recover around 2.5 million euros from the EU Solidarity Fund (FSEU). These funds were designated for reconstruction efforts following earthquakes that struck Croatia.

According to unofficial reports, the company involved is Flamtron, with its director Anto Marković among the accused, alongside Valentin Jakovljević and Josip Radošević, a construction expert and electrical engineer. Investigations revealed that between January 2022 and October 2023, one of the accused submitted an application on behalf of Flamtron for a public call by the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development. The call aimed to restore energy infrastructure damaged by the late 2020 earthquakes in the Sisak-Moslavina County.

The director of the company agreed to the creation of falsified documentation with the help of the other two accused.

· EPPO Investigation ResultsDetails from the EPPO investigation outlining the alleged scheme to falsify documents for EU funding.

To secure the funds, the application required damage assessments for the energy infrastructure and proof of medium-voltage cable testing, specifically linking the damage to the earthquakes. EPPO's investigation indicates that the company director arranged for falsified documentation with the help of the other two defendants. They allegedly misrepresented that the damage to the energy infrastructure was caused by the earthquakes, while the construction expert inflated the estimated costs for repairing the existing network.

Falsified documents were subsequently submitted to the Ministry, leading to the allocation of approximately 2.5 million euros from the FSEU. Around 1.7 million euros of this amount was paid to the accused company for costs deemed ineligible. Following EPPO's proposal, an investigative judge ordered the seizure of assets and funds in the company's accounts totaling 1,513,878.66 euros to secure the illegally obtained financial gains. If found guilty, the defendants face potential prison sentences of up to ten years.

The construction expert unjustifiably increased the estimated costs for the repair of the existing network.

· EPPO Investigation ResultsDetails from the EPPO investigation regarding the alleged inflation of repair costs.
About this summary

Originally published by Večernji List in Croatian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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