The Slovenia Times

Cimos Unofficially Targeted in EU Funds Fraud Probe

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The suspects applied for funds from the European Regional Development Fund in 20010-2012 to buy new production equipment, but in fact only refurbished old equipment, a release from the Maribor Police Administration said.

In that way, they deceived the EU money distributing authority into granting them EUR 1.97m in 2012 as a refund for the acquisition of the equipment, which they were not eligible for.

The business daily Finance cites unofficial information in reporting that the suspects were former executives of Cimos, which also has a production plant in Maribor.

The police statement said that that the 13 suspects were executives as well as employees at the company, which prepared the paperwork for the project application.

The Maribor investigation ran parallel to a probe into the same suspected fraud in Koper. The latter was closed earlier this year with preliminary charges filed against 12 suspects.

The Koper investigators also filed criminal complaints against four persons suspected of money laundering as well as three firms.

The fraud in Koper allegedly caused EUR 3.28m in damage to the Slovenian and EU budgets. Including the fraud investigated by the Maribor police, the total of suspected illegal gains is EUR 5.25m.

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