The European Union lost over €880m to fraud in 2015
More than €880m (£675m) of EU funds was stolen by fraudsters last year, a new report from the European Union's anti-fraud body has found.
The European Anti-Fraud Office (Olaf) responded to 1,442 allegations of fraud in 2015, closing more than 300 separate investigations which revealed €888.1m had been lost to fraud.
This was slightly down on the €901m lost in 2014, and takes the total value of fraudulent activity discovered by Olaf in its four-year history to €2.5bn (£1.9bn).
Most of the money – €624m – was lost through the EU's structural and social funds project, which take the form of grants and financial assistance to both public and private sectors. Another €98m was lost to customs and trade fraud including cigarette smuggling and other forms of VAT evasion.
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Among the schemes that Olaf disclosed as being fraudulent was the case of an Italian citizen who set up a fruit and vegetable refrigeration plant in Bulgaria, entered into business with another one of his ventures and began charging himself a "substantially inflated price" in order to unlock €1.3m of EU funds.
Another €76m was lost in the EU's external aid programme. Discrepancies there included a €2m donation to an African ecological project which provided false information about the scheme to charitable donors.