A Zagreb County Court investigating judge has ordered month-long detention for four persons whom the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) in Zagreb suspects of agricultural subsidy fraud and money laundering, Hina learned from court sources on Friday.

According to media reports, the detention order refers to Vanja Gnjidic, founder and director of G.R.M. d.o.o. and Geo legal d.o.o. companies, Darko Blazevic, the person in charge in the 4 D d.o.o. company, Ljerka Mikic, director of the GP Mikic company, and Danijela Blazevic, who was authorised to manage funds of the Iskopi 4 D d.o.o. company.

In addition to the four suspects, also under investigation is Gnjidic’s company, the EPPO reported earlier.

Without revealing the suspects’ names, the EPPO said on Thursday it suspects that between February 2015 and this month, Gnjidic, currently the business manager of another company, had an arrangement with the three other suspects to apply for non-refundable EU agricultural funds via the “Support for investments in agricultural holdings” call, which had a total value of over €2.5 million.

The call was co-financed by the EU’s European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development at a rate of 85%, and the Croatian state budget at a rate of 15%.

The media report that the businesswoman is suspected of falsifying data, together with the other suspects, to make it seem that she had the funds for a fig plantation on the island of Jakljan off Dubrovnik.

According to the results of the preliminary investigation, carried out by the EPPO in cooperation with the Dubrovnik-Neretva County Police Administration and the Independent Financial Investigation Sector of the Tax Administration of the Croatian Ministry of Finance, the first suspect submitted a fraudulent request in the name of her company for the call. In her request, she falsely stated that her company met the mandatory eligibility requirements, including – among others – the financial capability, the absence of a conflict of interest with the suppliers, and the capacity to continue developing agricultural production for a minimum period of five years.

It is understood that, in order to demonstrate that the documentation was in order, the first suspect attached false documents to her request, with the aid of the other suspects. As a result, the application for the subsidy was successful, and Croatia’s Paying Agency for Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development made a single payment to the total amount of over €1.5 million to the first suspect’s company, the EPPO said.

According to the evidence, the first suspect then proceeded to periodically withdraw part of the paid out subsidy from her company’s account in cash, and also – in order to hide the traces of the illegal flow of money – directed part of it to other related companies, before withdrawing it in cash either personally, or through one of the other suspects.

It is believed that the suspect thereby obtained, for herself and her company, an undue pecuniary gain to the amount of the support received – and therefore inflicted damage of over €1.5 million to the EU and national budgets, the EPPO said.