The Orders Chapter decided to revoke the Third Class Cross of Recognition from entrepreneur Juris Sprukulis, convicted of fraud with European Union funds, according to a statement from the President of Latvia, Edgars Rinkēvičs, reported LETA.
On April 4, 2023, the head of the farm "Vecsiljāņi" and creator of the brand "Ievas siers", Juris Sprukulis, was awarded the Third Class Cross of Recognition. However, in September of this year, a court ruling came into effect, under which Sprukulis was fined 75,480 euros in the EU funding fraud case, and his enterprise was ordered to repay an additional 425,500 euros.
The statement does not specify the rationale behind the decision of the Orders Chapter. The President's Office previously emphasized that it does not comment on decisions made at Chapter meetings or discussions regarding the awarding or revocation of high state honors to specific individuals.
As previously explained to the LETA agency by the European Prosecutor's Office, the entrepreneur from Zemgale was found guilty of committing two offenses under the third part of Article 177 of the Criminal Code — large-scale fraud. The crimes were committed in the interests of a legal entity that received state and European financial support.
The criminal proceedings initiated by the European Prosecutor's Office in 2023 and investigated in close cooperation with the State Police revealed signs of fraud in two projects co-financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development. These projects were implemented in 2019–2020 and 2022–2023 and were administered by the Rural Support Service.
It was established that in the interests of the entrepreneur's dairy farming enterprise, state and European funds amounting to 901,095 euros were embezzled. During the investigation, the European Prosecutor's Office prevented the embezzlement of the remaining 623,955 euros of public funding for the second project, the prosecution reported.
The investigation proved that the construction of agricultural buildings in both projects was carried out not by a third party unrelated to the recipient of support and honestly won the competition, as required by law, but by legal entities associated with the entrepreneur himself.
In the fictitious competitions announced by the entrepreneur's enterprise, he effectively won through a company controlled and secretly managed by him, formally registered under another individual's name.
Thus, both the "winning" firm and the recipient of support, as well as another enterprise linked to the entrepreneur, participated in the construction and supply of building materials.
Furthermore, the entrepreneur ensured the preparation of documents with fictitious content and the transfer of funds between the involved firms to conceal the disregard for the requirements of the competitive procedure and the obvious conflict of interest, as well as the fact that the actual cost of construction for a number of items was lower than indicated in the documents submitted to the Rural Support Service, the prosecution reported.
These actions of the entrepreneur were aimed at secretly underreporting the actual project expenses so that his enterprise could maximize its avoidance of investing its own share of funding.
During the criminal investigation, the recipient of support fully reimbursed the Rural Support Service for the embezzled public funding.
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