The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Zagreb announced on Thursday that it was carrying out urgent evidence-gathering measures in several Croatian counties on suspicion of subsidy fraud and document forgery.

These urgent investigative measures come in the wake of a criminal investigation led by the EPPO, in cooperation with the Medjimurje County Police Administration.

“These activities are being conducted against several Croatian citizens, who are suspected of having committed several multi-million euro subsidy frauds, as well as document forgery, to the detriment of the EU budget,” said EPPO.

Never realised projects, forged documents

N1 finds out that the company Vajda from the town of Cakovec is suspected of subsidy fraud, i.e. of having received money from EU funds for projects that were never realised.

Our sources claim that the EPPO has been investigating this possible fraud for some time and has now sent the police to this company in Cakovec to confiscate all the necessary documents.

N1 has learnt that the investigators suspect that Vajda withdrew money from EU funds, but that the money was then not invested in a targeted manner. It is then suspected that the documents were forged to justify the illegal spending of money.

Incidentally, Vajda has been bragging for years about the millions it has withdrawn from EU funds. It has not yet been confirmed which project it is. Vajda stated that 50 per cent of the investment was covered by European funds.