Officials of Romania's agriculture payments agency held in corruption case

Romanian anticorruption prosecutors held several officials from the Agency for Payments and Intervention in Agriculture (APIA) for abuse of office and money laundering in the case of fraud with European funds. The indicted include the former APIA general director Gheorghe Benu, deputy director Melinda Kerekes, and head of department Anton Giminadis. Benu was suspended from office in June 2014, when he was investigated for granting illegal farm subsidies. This time, the prosecutors charged him for fraud with European funds. The three were taken to court on October 6, where the prosecutors asked for their arrest. In 2012, Romania benefited from European Funds destined to buy food for the most deprived persons in the European Union. The country carried out procedures to acquire 11 food products, which included flour and oil. According to DNA, nine of the 11 supply contracts were carried out right, but two contracts were not conducted properly. APIA illegally attributed the two contracts for flour and oil to a Bulgarian company. Moreover, the APIA directors approved the payments to that firm, although it only delivered a small part of the products, thus damaging the EU budget by EUR 26.5 million. Romania’s anticorruption prosecutors have cooperated with the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) in this investigation. editor@romania-insider.com