OLAF AND ITALIAN POLICE SMASH GHOST TOBACCO SUBSIDY SCAM
May 1st, 2008
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ITALIAN Carabinieri police force and European Union (EU) anti-fraud office OLAF have smashed a fraud ring involving the claiming of agricultural subsidies for more then 900,000 kilograms of non-existent tobacco. OLAF claims that at least Euro 3 million had been illegally siphoned from EU common agricultural policy budgets in this scam, which has led to 80 individuals being placed under formal judicial investigation by the Italian public prosecutor's office (Procura della Repubblica) in Perugia, north of Rome. As they await the fate of this ...
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