The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) has opened an investigation in Croatia against five individuals and three legal entities on suspicion of subsidy fraud and falsification of documents in connection with two projects financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the European Social Fund (ESF). TASR informs about it based on Thursday’s EPPO statement. At the request of the EPPO, five suspects were arrested on Wednesday after investigative actions carried out by the police department of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County.
According to the investigators, the founder and current manager of a certain company agreed with a member of the board of directors of another company in 2019-2024 to submit an application for the project “Adaptation and commercialization of the My Dubrovnik application” within the call of the Ministry of Economy, co-financed by 85 percent from the ERDF.
However, they provided false data to the Croatian Agency for Small Business, Innovation and Investment (HAMAG-BICRO) in the submitted application, which had a direct impact on the positive evaluation of the project. Among other things, they falsely stated that the application had been developed and tested and that one of the companies had assembled a project team with relevant experience. In addition, falsified declarations of intent were attached to the application.
As a result, the company represented by the suspect received grants of 185,543 euros, which represented 85 percent of the cost of the project, while the beneficiary had to provide the remaining 15 percent. Regarding the Liquid Democracy project funded by the ESF, there is reasonable suspicion that grants have been illegally awarded to a company represented by one of the persons under investigation in the total amount of 132,298 euros from the ESF (85 percent of the funds), the rest from the state budget of Croatia.
