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The European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) in Bucharest sent four Romanian citizens to court at the Bucharest Tribunal for fraud and forgery in documents involving financing for young farmers from the diaspora, the EPPO says in a press release.
It is about the EU funds aimed at supporting young farmers living abroad, to help them return to work in the agricultural sector in Romania. In order to obtain this support, the candidates had to certify that they had a job in agriculture, veterinary medicine, the agri-food sector or in the agrarian economy, outside the borders of Romania, for at least three months, in the two years prior to submitting the application, Agerpres informs.
According to the evidence, to certify that they worked abroad, the defendants submitted false and inaccurate documents to the Romanian Agency for the Financing of Rural Investments (AFIR), including temporary work contracts concluded with a Spanish company in May 2020 and rental contracts for a house in Spain, as well as residence registration certificates for a city in Spain. These documents were false, as determined following consultation with the EPPO Office in Madrid. As a result, the defendants were able to obtain 90,000 euros (438,147 RON) in undue EU funds.
In order to recover the damage caused to the EU budget, the EPPO initiated a procedure to freeze the assets of the defendants. If found guilty, the defendants face up to 7 years in prison for subsidy fraud and another three years for falsifying official and private documents.
