Police recommend charges against Agrofert bakery in €3 million subsidy case
Detectives from the National Centre Against Organised Crime have recommended prosecuting Zelená louka Bakery and two of its representatives on suspicion of subsidy fraud worth 100 million crowns.
Police recommend charges against Agrofert bakery in €3 million subsidy case
The case of suspected misuse of European funding has been sent to court. Investigators from the National Centre Against Organised Crime (NCOZ) have submitted materials to the state prosecutor for charges against Zelená louka Bakery, which falls under the Agrofert holding, and two of its senior employees. They face allegations of unlawfully obtaining a subsidy and damaging the EU budget.
The entire matter concerns 100 million crowns in EU funds that were allocated to the company by Czech authorities, but Brussels subsequently refused to pay them. State prosecutor Adam Bašný from the European Public Prosecutor's Office, who is overseeing the case, confirmed receipt of the case materials to the iROZHLAS.cz server. He will now review the final procedural steps and decide whether to press charges. No statutory deadline exists for this decision.
Police began investigating the company in October 2024. They then charged the bakery itself, which is a subsidiary of Penam, and two members of its management. The money was originally supposed to cover the purchase of a production line for toast bread, which the company presented as a groundbreaking project with innovative features. The result was meant to be a healthier and tastier product without chemical preservatives.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade approved the application under the Operational Programme Enterprise and Innovation for Competitiveness in 2018. European auditors, however, found during inspection that the technology used in operations was not new, but already existing. On the basis of this finding, the commission refused to reimburse the costs.
Representatives of the Agrofert holding have consistently denied that any wrongdoing occurred during the implementation of the project. Source: Novinky.cz
Source: Novinky.cz