Brussels, 15/02/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 14 February the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) said that it had contributed to the discovery of an international criminal network that had embezzled Community funds from the Special Accession Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (Sapard). The financial impact of the fraud is estimated at 7.5 million euros.
OLAF, together with the national services of Bulgaria (public ministries in Sofia and the Bulgarian Chief Directorate for Combating Organised Crime), the Public Prosecutors Office in Augsburg, Germany, along with the German Customs Investigation Services in Munich,, and the Federal Public Prosecutors Office and the Federal Criminal Investigation Police in Bern, Switzerland carried out a large-scale operation and uncovered an international crime ring involving EU pre-accession funds. The investigations revealed a linked network of more than 50 Bulgarian, German and Swiss companies' acquisition of used machinery for the processing and packaging of meat products at inflated prices. A press release explained that these companies got a Bulgarian payment agency to make Sapard funding payments for machines that were not eligible under these programmes. (lc)