CENTRAL ANTI-CORRUPTION BUREAU always in the interest of Poland Subsidy fraud - News

On 17 December 2025, officers of the Regional Office of the CBA in Szczecin detained four individuals in the Greater Poland and Lublin voivodeships who were involved in siphoning off EU grant funds. The entrepreneurs were charged with fraud involving the unlawful obtaining of property of significant value to the detriment of NCBR and PARP. During the operation, documentation and data storage devices used by the suspects were secured.

Mechanism of the fraud – “empty” invoices

The detained suspects were involved in the criminal scheme in various roles. Three suspects managed portfolio companies that received grant funding. The grant beneficiaries acquired shares in the companies and served as members of their management boards. Their actions fulfilled the elements of fraud to the detriment of NCBR and PARP, as the work allegedly performed under the grants did not correspond to the planned scope of activities. Where work was actually carried out, its value was significantly overstated. The purpose of these actions was to feign the implementation of grant objectives and to spend inflated amounts of funds on services.

Subcontractors were engaged to carry out the grant-related work. One of the detained individuals simultaneously acted as a grant beneficiary and a subcontractor. According to the findings of the officers, the subcontractors were associated entrepreneurs who agreed to lend their businesses to facilitate the transfer of funds originating from the fraud.

Funds for work supposedly performed by subcontractors were either transferred back to members of the criminal group or to the grant recipients themselves. A total of nearly 4 million PLN was reportedly transferred.

Charges

The detainees were brought to the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Szczecin. There, they were charged with issuing false invoices whose total amount owed exceeded a significant amount, maintaining unreliable accounting records, submitting false declarations regarding the expenditure of grant funds in accordance with their intended purpose, and laundering funds derived from fraud committed to the detriment of the National Centre for Research and Development and the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development.

More details are available in the statement of the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Szczecin.

CBA Press Team