The European Prosecutor's Office chased a Bulgarian an entrepreneur fraudulently took an advance payment under a European project for 490,000 euros to build a farm for laying hens.
The accused is the manager of a company that received funding from the EU under a project approved by the State Fund “Agriculture”.
In order to receive an advance payment of funds, the manager submitted a bank guarantee, which was rejected by the “Agriculture” fund because it did not meet the requirements.
It is alleged that the defendant subsequently submitted a false amendment to the original bank guarantee, making it appear as if it had been issued by the bank with the necessary changes.
In this way, he misled the payment agency, which made an advance payment in the amount of around 245,000 euros (479,229.70 BGN), equivalent to 50% of the funds.
Furthermore, according to the investigation, the works for which the beneficiary received the funds were never completed, BGNES claims.
If found guilty, the accused faces between two and eight years in prison.