The European Public Prosecutor's Office led by Romanian prosecutor Laura Codruța Kövesi has published its annual report on the activities for 2022. At the end of the year, EPPO had a total of 1,117 active investigations, with damages amounting to EUR 14 billion. In Romania, 121 investigations were open, with damages estimated at EUR 508 million.

Only 185 (16.5%) of the active investigations were linked to VAT fraud, but these accounted for damages worth EUR 6.7 bln (47% of the total EUR 14 bln), says the report cited by Biziday. 3,318 crime reports were processed and 865 investigations were opened last year. In addition, judges froze EUR 359 mln, compared to EUR 147 mln in 2021, seven times more than the total budget allocated to the organization for 2022.

In Romania, the EPPO had 121 active investigations at the end of the year, with estimated damages of EUR 508 mln, of which EUR 3 mln come from VAT fraud. In addition, EUR 10 mln was frozen in the case of investigations in Romania.

"A year and a half after the start of our activities, EPPO's potential cannot be ignored. In 2022 we demonstrated that EPPO has an unprecedented capacity to identify and track volatile financial flows and opaque legal arrangements," said the Chief Prosecutor, Laura Codruța Kövesi.

According to the report, there are currently more investigations into fraud in the 22 participating member states than the historical average prior to the establishment of EPPO.

radu@romania-insider.com

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