EPPO’s Milan office has frozen €2.6 million in assets in an investigation into suspected fraud connected with Italy’s EU-financed recovery plan. The operation, announced on 18 September, concerns four companies and their legal representatives, with investigators examining training tax credits, invoices and arrangements for supplying workers to other businesses.
The assets were frozen under a court order worth €4.9 million. That distinction matters: the value authorised by the court and the value secured at the time of the announcement are different figures. EPPO reported €2.6 million already frozen, rather than stating that the entire amount covered by the order had been recovered or returned to public budgets.
Prosecutors allege that the companies generated €2.38 million in tax credits by claiming employee training courses that never took place. The credits were then allegedly used to reduce tax and social security payments connected with hundreds of workers. According to the investigation, those workers were subsequently supplied unlawfully to third-party companies.
A tax credit can reduce the amount a business owes to the state. That makes the alleged arrangement financially different from a simple cash grant, even though both can affect public resources. In this case, the prosecution says a claim about training produced credits that were used to reduce other liabilities. The investigation must establish whether the claimed activity existed and whether the resulting credits were lawfully available.
The recovery funding involved came through Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan, known as the PNRR, financed by the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility. The facility supports national reforms and investments following the pandemic. The case concerns suspected misuse within that financing framework, rather than a finding about every project supported by the Italian plan.
Investigators also identified a separate suspected fraud involving €7.3 million in state-guaranteed financing obtained by two companies. EPPO alleges that false information was supplied in the applications. State-guaranteed financing and training tax credits are different financial instruments, and the announcement treats them as separate suspected arrangements discovered during the investigation.
Both arrangements allegedly relied on shell companies and invoices for transactions that did not occur. The company structure and the paperwork are therefore central to the prosecution’s account. An invoice can create the appearance of a commercial cost, but the existence of the document alone does not establish that the underlying goods or services were delivered. Investigators must connect the records with actual activity.
EPPO further reported suspected international money laundering involving companies in several countries and transfers of hundreds of millions of euros to China and Hong Kong. That is a much larger financial measure than the amounts listed for the tax credits or state-guaranteed financing. The announcement does not establish that all those transfers were generated by the training allegations or that their full value constitutes a proven loss to the EU.
The different amounts should therefore remain separate in any assessment of the case. The €2.38 million concerns allegedly fictitious credits, the €7.3 million concerns financing obtained through allegedly false applications, and the hundreds of millions concern transfers examined in the suspected laundering arrangement. Adding them together would risk counting different stages and categories of financial activity as if they were a single established loss.
The economic and financial police unit of the Guardia di Finanza in Milan is carrying out the investigation. Searches and asset measures are designed to obtain evidence and secure property while proceedings continue. The public statement does not identify every company, set out each representative’s alleged role or publish the records supporting the claims. Those details remain part of the criminal process.
The reference to workers also needs care. EPPO describes alleged wrongdoing by companies and their representatives in the use of tax credits and labour arrangements. It does not say that the hundreds of workers mentioned in the announcement knowingly participated in fraud. Employment by a company under investigation is not evidence of individual criminal responsibility, and the statement provides no basis for making that accusation.
No convictions were announced. The immediate result is a partial execution of a freezing order and the disclosure of several suspected financial arrangements that require further examination. The case will depend on whether the training, financing applications and transactions can be substantiated, and on the role of each suspect in them. The sums frozen preserve assets during that process; they do not replace a judicial determination of guilt. All those concerned remain presumed innocent.
Sources:
