It was about €600 million

Fraudsters scammed EU funds with bogus companies

(Bild: AFP )

A gang of criminals in Italy has been swindling EU funds on a grand scale using bogus companies. Investigators from several countries, including Austria, have now been able to put a stop to dozens of suspects - more than 600 million euros have been confiscated.

The fraud was uncovered by the Venice financial police; the money came from the "Next Generation EU" recovery plan financed by the EU. A total of 23 arrest warrants were issued.

Requesting funds with fictitious companies

The majority of the defendants were criminal professionals with several previous convictions. Specifically, it was about funds for the "internationalization of companies". The applicant companies were fictitious companies. In the vast majority of cases, their only activity consisted of preparing the documents required for access to the contested funds.

Italy will receive a total of 194.4 billion euros under the recovery program adopted after the pandemic, in the form of loans and grants. The program includes 66 reforms and 150 investments that Italy is to implement by 2026.

FPÖ laments "complete failure" 
FPÖ member of the National Council Petra Steger called for "a complete investigation including political consequences" in a reaction. "Criminals are only ever strong where the system is weak," she said in a statement on Thursday, describing the European Union as a "complete failure". "Although the EU is already a real bureaucratic monster and wants to take on more and more powers, it is apparently not even able to ensure the necessary controls when allocating EU funds," the FPÖ's second-placed candidate in the European elections in June said indignantly.