Three senior officials were questioned in police custody in mid-April as part of investigations in Paris on suspicion of fraud to European agricultural aid in Corsica, we learned Thursday from a source close to the case confirming information from the Duck chained.
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The custody, which took place last week in the premises of the gendarmerie in Paris, were lifted without prosecution at this stage, by an investigating judge from the financial center of the Paris judicial court, according to a source close to the folder. Legal information on suspicions of fraud in agricultural subsidies in Corsica was opened in December 2019 by the national financial prosecutor (PNF) after a report from the General Inspectorates of Finance and Administration and the General Council for Food, agriculture and rural areas, as well as a complaint from the Anticor association.
According to
Le Canard Enchaîné
, senior officials are suspected of having proposed to Corsican breeders, after a meeting at the Ministry of Agriculture in January 2016, to divert aid allocated under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the 'European Union.
Intended only for pig breeders exploiting chestnut groves and oak groves, the subsidies have been extended "
to all breeders
", according to Le Canard enchaîné. The amount "
estimated, for the moment, of the total fraud over the three years concerned - 2015, 2016 and 2017 - is 1.2 million euros
", according to a judicial source. "
We are satisfied that the investigations are continuing with energy
", responded to AFP Me Jérôme Karsenti, Anticor lawyer.
The association had filed a complaint with the constitution of civil party on May 10, 2019 with the PNF for "
misappropriation of massive public agricultural subsidies
", "
with the complicity of the control authorities
", including the prefectural services, accused of "
failures
".
According to Anticor, the entire scam of agricultural aid in Corsica would amount to 36 million euros between 2015 and 2019. In parallel, several legal investigations for “
aggravated scams
” are underway in Bastia and Ajaccio, targeting farmers agricultural.
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In a report in June 2018, the EU Anti-Fraud Office (Olaf), seized by the local Anticor group in Corsica and individuals, implicated eight owners of the island, suspected of having overestimated the agricultural areas for which they requested aid, with the complacency of professional organizations. "
State services
" have been slow to take "
corrective measures
," Olaf criticized.