WRITTEN QUESTION E-3814/03 by Maurizio Turco (NI) to the Commission. Judicial inquiry by the Palermo Prosecutor's Office into EUR 6,5 million fraud against the European Union.
Date: 2003-12-11
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU financing, European Anti-fraud Office, Italy, economic offence, fraud against the EU, illicit trade, judicial inquiry, pneumatic tyre

27.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 78 E/647

(2004/C 78 E/0687)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3813/03

by Maurizio Turco (NI) to the Commission

(11 December 2003)

Subject: Judicial inquiry by the Venice Prosecutor’s Office into use of Community funds for the agricultural

sector

An article appeared on 26 November 2003 on the Vivacity Belluno website, entitled ‘Puglia businessman
arrested for fraud against the EU’. According to the article:

(cid:1) three people were arrested for involvement in aggravated and repeated fraud to obtain national and
Community funding, aggravated and repeated falsification by a private citizen in an official act, with
the aggravating circumstance of causing serious prejudice to the body concerned;

(cid:1) the three individuals concerned had, according to the information gathered by the Guardia di Finanza
police, set up and managed many organisations and companies in the Veneto, Lazio and Puglia
regions, producing and selling ‘dehydrated medicinal herbs’, thanks to substantial Community aid;

(cid:1) the organisations were used to invoice or take delivery of consignments of medicinal herbs, through
which the three individuals illegally obtained in 2002 alone funds from the AGEA (Agenzia per le
erogazioni in agricoltura) amounting to EUR 500 000;

(cid:1) the sums to be refunded, added to the administrative penalties and sums owed by the companies for
failing to monitor the activities of their own administrators, as well as ordinary and revaluation
interest, amount to a minimum of EUR 1 300 000 and a maximum of EUR 1 900 000.

Will the Commission state:

(cid:1) whether it is aware of these facts and, if so, what action it has taken or intends to take on the matter?

(cid:1) whether OLAF has been informed of the matter and, if so, whether it has initiated or intends to

initiate an investigation?

Answer given by Ms Schreyer on behalf of the Commission

(27 January 2004)

The Commission can inform the Honourable Member that the European Antifraud Office (OLAF) is aware
that the Italian authorities are conducting a judicial investigation into a company for alleged aggravated
and repeated fraud to obtain national and Community grants and aggravated and repeated falsification.

As judicial proceedings are already in motion in Italy, at the Prosecution Service for Venice, OLAF is
available to provide the judicial authorities with all such assistance as they may request.

(2004/C 78 E/0688)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3814/03

by Maurizio Turco (NI) to the Commission

(11 December 2003)

Subject: Judicial

inquiry by the Palermo Prosecutor’s Office into EUR 6,5 million fraud against

the

European Union

An article appeared on 7 November 2003 on the website of the daily newspaper ‘La Gazzetta del
Mezzogiorno’ entitled ‘EUR 6,5 million fraud against the EU to finance Cosa Nostra’. According to the
article:

(cid:1) three people charged with fraud against the EU amounting to EUR 6,5 million were arrested by the

‘Guardia di Finanzia’ police in Palermo;

C 78 E/648

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

27.3.2004

(cid:1) the money was used to pay for illegal activities of Cosa Nostra;

(cid:1) the three individuals had, through a number of companies, applied for EU funds from the Ministry for
Industry to set up new companies at a cost of approximately EUR 6 million; of this amount, around
EUR 2,5 million was granted and paid out;

(cid:1) investigations begain in 2001; to obtain the amounts in question the three individuals produced

totally fictitious documents;

(cid:1) the three persons under arrest, who own various businesses dealing with tyre sales, had requested and
obtained almost EUR 2,5 million to set up a tyre recucling plant in a shed. However, there was no
machinery in this shed (cid:1) which had been the object of a preventive confiscation order in previous
years (cid:1) and nothing had been produced.

Will the Commission state:

(cid:1) whether it is aware of these facts and, if so, what action it has taken or intends to take on the matter?

(cid:1) whether OLAF has been informed of the matter and, if so, whether it has initiated or intends to

initiate an investigation?

Answer given by Ms Schreyer on behalf of the Commission

(27 January 2004)

The Commission can inform the Honourable Member that the European Antifraud Office (OLAF) is aware
that the Italian authorities are conducting a judicial investigation into alleged instances of fraud against the
Union.

As judicial proceedings are already in motion in Italy, at the Prosecution Service for Palermo, OLAF is
available to provide the judicial authorities with all such assistance as they may request.

(2004/C 78 E/0689)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3815/03

by Maurizio Turco (NI) to the Commission

(11 December 2003)

Subject: Judicial inquiry by the Salerno Prosecutor’s Office into EUR 30 million fraud against the European

Union

On 2 December 2003 the AGI Italian press agency published a report entitled ‘EUR 30 million fraud
against the EU: seven arrested in the Salerno region’. According to this report:

(cid:1) an organisation which illegally obtained state and Community funding has been dismantled by the

regional branch of the Guardia di Finanza police, who arrested seven people;

(cid:1) investigations were coordinated by the Salerno Public Prosecutor’s Office;

(cid:1) companies and property amounting to EUR 100 million were confiscated in the country;

(cid:1) the people under investigation had set up a group of interconnected companies which had received

funding between 1997 and 2003 amounting to EUR 30 million;

(cid:1) the organisation, which could count on the cooperation of

the Ministry for
Productive Activities, had claimed public funds to cover false expenditure, based on forged accounts
and off-accounts documents.

three officials at