Fraud suspected in fish farming projects

The Integrity Authority has filed a complaint in connection with three projects funded by the EU under the Fish Farming Programme (Mahop) in the municipalities of Kazár and Mátraverebély in Nógrád County with a total of 485 million forints (approx. 1.2 million euros at today’s prices). According to the grant application, the total investment costs for the construction of fish ponds were twice as high. The aid recipient was an independent entrepreneur based in Budapest with business premises in both municipalities.

The authorisations were missing

The authority found that the beneficiary did not have a fish farming licence during the project period from 2018 to 2023. When submitting the aid application, he had justified his fishing activities with previous invoices, although he did not even have a water management licence at that time. In addition, he should not have received HUF 115 million in aid for the purchase of machinery, as the area of fish ponds he managed was significantly smaller than the required 20-200 hectares.

Suspicion of fictitious invoices

The recipient of the subsidy is suspected of having submitted false documents. For example, he wanted to prove his activity with receipts for fish sales, but according to NAV data, he only issued a total of 700 receipts for HUF 17.4 million between 15 and 23 December 2023. This means an average of one receipt for around 25,000 forints every 4 minutes and 46 seconds. The authority filed a complaint on suspicion of issuing fictitious invoices and budget fraud. There was also a conflict of interest between the contractors and suppliers involved in the project. The inspection authority found that invoices totalling HUF 625 million net (half of which were EU funds) were issued by suppliers who were not independent of the project sponsor.