The European Prosecutor’s office in Croatia is working on a number of new investigations, following two major fraud probes in 18 months since its launch, the head of the office told N1 television on Sunday.
Tamara Laptoš, who previously led Croatia’s anti-corruption unit USKOK, was appointed to lead the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Zagreb in July 2020, tasked with investigating fraud and corruption related to EU funds.
The most prominent scandal investigated by EPPO included a €1.3 million case which led to the indictment of the former government minister for EU funds, Gabrijela Žalac, and three of her associates, in December 2021.
Asked during a live interview if the Žalac investigation could branch out into new cases, Laptoš said: “That’s possible. I did not say that new cases had not been opened based on the Žalac case”.
To the repeated question of whether new cases had already been opened, she replied:
“Some have been, but I cannot talk about them in this phase.”
She said the EPPO’s Zagreb office launched 23 investigations in 2022, looking into a possible fraud totalling €320 million, adding that she was encouraged by the readiness of citizens to report fraud.
Another high-ranking official recently investigated by EPPO is former agriculture minister Tomislav Tolusic, who was detained in July 2022 in an investigation over suspected irregularities over around €600,000 in EU funding he spent to equip his privately owned winemaking business.
(Zoran Radosavljević | EURACTIV.com)
Source: euractiv.com
