Over €170,000 seized from Italian MEP, assistants over fraud suspicion

The European Public Prosecutor’s Workplace (EPPO) introduced on Monday that it has seized over €170,000 from an Italian MEP and 4 of her parliamentary assistants as a part of a fraud investigation.

The execution of the seizure order towards MEP Stefania Zambelli, from the populist right-wing La Lega occasion, and her 4 Italian assistants was accomplished final Thursday, the EPPO mentioned in an announcement.

It adopted a preliminary investigation led by the EPPO and the Brescia department of the Italian Monetary Police over a suspicion of fraud detrimental to the EU price range.

Investigators imagine that the 4 assistants didn’t perform the actions associated to the operate for which they have been employed, or solely carried them out partially, falsely documenting their actions to the European Parliament.

They’re additionally accused of getting misrepresented their {qualifications}, having declared academic {and professional} abilities that they didn’t have.

Zambelli, who was elected to the European parliament in 2019, is “intently associated to at the very least one of many folks employed” and is believed to have “additionally benefited from the sums paid by the European Parliament for the work actions that the workers ought to have carried out,” the EPPO mentioned. 

Euronews has reached out to Zambelli’s workplace for remark.