Open Europe
9 November 2008 100 EXAMPLES OF EU WASTE AND FRAUD FRAUD
The greedy dentist
A dentist in Cosenza used EU funds to buy a yellow Ferrari Testarossa, which sells at around 200,000 euros and a Formula One car, along with 55 other luxury cars, which he stored in warehouses.
He received EU money by inventing a solar-panel business that never saw the light of day.
The dentist was part of a larger fraud scheme involving a staggering €80 million, in which four business organisations siphoned off funds during a four year period to buy luxury items such as cars, motorbikes and yachts1. Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Bubbico and the story of the bogus silk worms Filippo Bubbico, President of the Basilicata region of Italy, and Senator of the Social Democrat party, received €10,329 in EU funds for a silk worm breeding business which never existed.
The politician, Bubbico, operated under the false name Bibbibo when he acted as president of the consortium “Seta Italia” (Silk Italy), and Bobbidi when he acted on behalf of “Seta Basilicata”. Both consortiums managed EU funds for the programme “Silkworm breeding development” but not one strand of silk was produced. As President of the region, Bubbico Basilicata was also distributing EU funds to various relatives. €300,000 ended up in the pockets of Rocco Luigi Bubbico, the Undersecretary’s father, and Antonio Clemente, his father-in-law2. EU bureaucrat siphons off money intended for Chernobyl victims In 2006, it was revealed that a Belgian EU bureaucrat had been siphoning off EU subsidies intended for Chernobyl victims, using all the money for himself3. Belgian city spends €12 million on junkets and dinners
A secret account containing non-declared funds of the Belgian city of Charleroi was discovered in 2007.
The account had been used to illegally put away EU funds that the town had received - amounting to some €12 million. The account was apparently used to fund a whole range of junkets and dinners. For instance, a delegation of members of the ruling Socialist Party (PS) used the money to go to Belarus on a hunting trip. The city’s Secretary, and current President of the Walloon Parliament, Bernard Bermils José Happart were among the travelers. Happart defended himself saying, “If I’m invited, I 1 IlGiornale (19.08.06); Republica (23.02.06) 2 Corriere della sera (27.04.07) 3 Europa-nu
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