Officials of Bulgaria ’s State Fund Agriculture were involved in the scheme for drainage of 7.5 million euro SAPARD funds.

The scheme was uncovered on February 13 2007, Supreme Prosecution of Cassation (SPC) spokesperson Boiko Naidenov said.
 
The officials ‘lacked will’ to control the fund, he said as quoted by mediapool.bg.
 
SPC still lacked the names of the State Fund Agriculture and SAPARD programme officials that co-operated with the gang.
 
SPC reached for the first time to an organised crime of civil servants. They used simple accounting operations to divert nearly 14 million leva, Naidenov said.
 
Naidenov said that seven Bulgarians, two Germans and two Swiss citizens took part in the scheme. Police detained six of the Bulgarians, mediapool.bg said.
 
The detained are accused of participation in a criminal gang, document forging and money laundering.
 
The investigation begun in December 2006 after a signal from German authorities. The suspects forged documents for the purchase of new and expensive machines. Document forging was committed in Germany and Bulgarian members of the gang presented the false documents to Bulgarian SAPARD-related organisarions, mediapool.bg said.