Madrid (EFE).- The National Police has uncovered a fraud of European subsidies in rural areas through a national agrarian union, in an operation with 42 people investigated, although not arrested.
In addition, two registrations have been made at the national headquarters of this union in Madrid and in the regional headquarters of Andalusia. As sources close to the case have indicated to EFE, it is the COAG organization.
Likewise, seven requests for information have been requested at the union headquarters in Aragon, the Balearic Islands, the Basque Country, the Valencian Community, La Rioja, Murcia and Catalonia, the Police have reported.
The operation has been carried out within the framework of an investigation procedure of the European Prosecutor’s Office and under the supervision of a guarantee judge of the National Court.
Aid for activities of attention to foreigners that were not carried out
The aid, granted from European funds, was intended for the care of foreign citizens in Spain in terms of organization and coordination of contracts, advice on socio-labour information and visits to accommodation.
The exhaustive analysis of three financial years at the national level revealed the alleged existence of multiple irregularities in the justification of aid through a sophisticated system of imitation of signatures in the documents.
The investigations began at the request of an Investigating Court in Seville, which would later refer the proceedings to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office for having requested the investigation, and as a result of a complaint against a national agricultural union.
The complaint referred to the use of false documents to justify activities not carried out whose execution was subsidized.
With the progress of the investigations, the agents uncovered an alleged fraud in subsidies, charged to European budgets, in the justification of the aid provided by the General Directorate of Migrations between 2018 and 2020.
The complexity of the operation has been based on the temporary extension of the fraud, as well as its extension at the national level, the group affected and the nature of the funds involved.
The investigation, which has had the collaboration of the General Intervention of the State Administration, constitutes the first operational exploitation of this type in Spain since the creation of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.
