EPPO has sent five people to trial for a fraud of 850,000 € involving irrigation systems in Romania

Prosecutors have charged five individuals following the discovery of a scheme involving a non-existent board of directors and rigged purchases.

Luxembourg, December 18, 2025 The European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) in Iași has brought to trial five individuals and three companies involved in a scheme to defraud the EU budget of approximately 850,000 euros. The charges relate to a project for modernizing irrigation systems, which also involves a public official from the Agency for the Financing of Rural Investments (AFIR), accused of facilitating the illegal acquisition of funds.

In short

The main defendants misled the authorities by submitting false documents for an agricultural cooperative that did not exist legally and did not have a functional board of directors.

A public official from a regional AFIR office is accused of corruption and complicity for approving fraudulent payments and disclosing confidential information in exchange for benefits.

Prosecutors have already frozen bank accounts and seized real estate valued at an estimated 1.3 million euros to recover the damage caused to the EU budget.

The investigation revealed a systematic manipulation of the funding process. The de facto president of the cooperative and the statutory president are accused of submitting fabricated documents to AFIR, claiming that a general assembly approved the project, although such a meeting did not take place. Furthermore, the procurement procedure for selecting a contractor for the irrigation works was rigged to favor a company owned by one of the defendants and managed by his wife.

Evidence suggests that a significant portion of the funds was subsequently laundered through disguised transfers in loan reimbursements. The scheme was allegedly aided by an AFIR manager who, between 2018 and 2023, approved payment requests despite irregularities. If found guilty, the defendants face prison sentences of up to ten and a half years for aggravated fraud with subsidies and money laundering.

https://2eu.brussels/ro/stiri/eppo-trimite-in-judecata-cinci-persoane-pentru-o-frauda-de-850000-eur-cu-sisteme-de-irigatii-in-romania