Cops arrest 3

Italian cops arrest 3 for alleged embezzlement of EU funds

Palermo police put the suspects under house arrest on charges including stealing food and technology provided for children.

BY WILHELMINE PREUSSEN

The Palermo police put three suspects under house arrest Friday morning on charges of “embezzlement and corruption” related to various EU-funded public school projects, including stealing food and technology from kids in a socially deprived area of the Italian city.

Two suspects “falsely declared” the number of pupils at the school to justify EU-funded scholarship programs for public school students, which were “never, or only partially” implemented, according to a statement by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), which has led the investigation between February 2022 and April 2023.

The investigators found that two suspects also deprived children of “significant amounts of food supplies” as well as expensive computer and technological devices, which were stored in the principal’s office and “misappropriated” by the two suspects, the statement says.

Supply of technological material was entrusted to a single company, whose owner is the third suspect placed under house arrest by the authorities Friday, according to the statement.

The investigators estimate that the abuse of EU funds involves more than €100,000.

Local media identified the two main suspects in the case as the principal and deputy of the Giovanni Falcone school in Palermo’s Zen district, an economically deprived quarter on the northern outskirts of the city.