OLAF suspects 24 frauds in Hungary since 2012
OLAF, the European Anti-Fraud Office, has found 24 suspected cases of fraud, fiscal fraud and misappropriation in Hungary since 2012, and has made recommendations to the Chief Prosecutorʼs Office to investigate them, the latterʼs spokesman Géza Fazekas told Hungarian news agency MTI yesterday, after the office brought charges in one such case.
Yesterday, the Chief Prosecutorʼs Office filed charges of suspected fiscal fraud against two directors of a company located at Lake Balaton who allegedly received EUR 178 million of EU and Hungarian budget grants for the purchase of forestry equipment, the costs of which, an OLAF investigation showed, could have been magnified through false invoices.
Mentioning two other cases in which his office initiated court proceedings after OLAF warnings, Fazekas said one person was sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for two years, while an accomplice was fined in an appealable ruling, in a case involving misappropriation of funds in a project related to printing machines. The other case Fazekas mentioned involved a person with three accomplices, who were reported to have used false documents and invoices to draw HUF 110 mln funding for the upgrade of a “hydrotherapy treadmill” for dogs, a project which was eventually not realized.
Chief Prosecutor Péter Polt and OLAF Director-General Giovanni Kessler met in Budapest in June 2015, when Kessler presented Polt with final reports on OLAFʼs investigations into several major cases, Fazekas told the news agency. Both sides praised the two authorities for excellent cooperation, Fazekas added.
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