20 people have been arrested in Greece over EU subsidy fraud — Reuters
On Monday, Greek police arrested 20 people on the island of Crete on suspicion of fraud involving European Union agricultural subsidies.
The international news agency Reuters reported this, citing official data from law enforcement agencies.
The perpetrators had organized a well-defined scheme for illicit enrichment that had been operating for several years.
The investigation established that the criminal group included individuals who had direct access to government funding distribution mechanisms.
“Among the suspected leaders of the criminal network are two accountants and government officials who helped farmers submit applications for EU agricultural funds based on false declarations regarding farmland,” the police stated.
Official officials used their positions to falsify documents.
The scale of the illegal activity allowed the participants in the scheme to embezzle colossal sums from European taxpayers. The organizers of the scheme artificially inflated the size of land plots or listed non-existent pastures.
“Since the network began operating in 2019, its illegal proceeds have exceeded 3 million euros,” Greek law enforcement officials emphasized during a press conference.
This successful police operation is just part of a much larger process aimed at ridding the country’s government of corruption.
“The arrests made on Monday are the latest in a series of local cases linked to a broader investigation by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office into alleged crimes in Greece against the EU’s financial interests,” the journalists note in their report.
This is not the first time international institutions have documented such systemic abuses in the agricultural sector of this Southern European country.
“Last year, European prosecutors charged dozens of Greeks with falsifying ownership rights to pastures in order to obtain millions of euros in EU subsidies, allegedly with the help of civil servants and conservative politicians,” the report states.
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