{"id":133669,"date":"2020-04-21T15:18:43","date_gmt":"2020-04-21T22:18:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=133669"},"modified":"2020-04-21T15:48:12","modified_gmt":"2020-04-21T22:48:12","slug":"fraudsters-diverted-e400000-in-eu-funds-into-mystery-cyprus-casino-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fraudsters-diverted-e400000-in-eu-funds-into-mystery-cyprus-casino-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Fraudsters Diverted \u20ac400,000 in EU Funds into Mystery Cyprus Casino Project"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than \u20ac400,000 ($434,000 USD) in EU funds that was supposed to go towards research on improving forest fire detection was siphoned into an unnamed Cyprus<\/a> casino project, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) said this week.<\/p>\n

\"OLAF
The EU anti-fraud agency OLAF said the funding application for the non-existent fire-detection project had been based on lies supported by false documents. (Image: CDU\/CSU)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The bogus research program was to be carried out by a consortium of five small and medium-sized enterprises based in France, Ireland, Romania, and Spain, according to a statement on OLAF\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

But officials at the European Commission\u2019s (EC) Research Executive Agency (REA), which stumped up the money for the phantom environmental project, soon began to suspect that some of the personnel costs submitted by the consortium were fishy.<\/p>\n

REA reported its suspicions to OLAF, whose investigators used on-the-spot checks and digital forensics to establish that the consortium did not have the operational capacity to carry out the purported project.<\/p>\n

The agency concluded in November 2019 that the funding application and subsequent progress reports had been based on lies supported by false documents.<\/p>\n

Most of the stolen EU money was diverted about as far from its intended purpose as can be imagined \u2013 being pumped into a casino\/hotel project in Cyprus,\u201d OLAF reported.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The agency declined to mention the casino project in question or whether it was based\u00a0in Southern or Northern Cyprus.<\/p>\n

Mystery Casino Project<\/strong><\/h2>\n

While casinos have existed in the Turkish-controlled north of the island for some time, Southern Cyprus, which is ethnically and politically Greek, only legalized casino gaming in 2015.<\/p>\n

Cyprus Casinos (C2), a joint venture between Melco Resorts and Cypriot consortium ICR Cyprus Holdings Ltd., is currently building the City of Dreams Mediterranean<\/a>\u00a0in Limassol, which promises to be Europe\u2019s biggest casino.<\/p>\n

The group has also established a temporary casino in Limassol, as well as four small satellite casinos across the island.<\/p>\n

But according to The Cyprus Mail<\/em>, the fraud is not believed to be related to Cyprus Casinos or the City of Dreams Mediterranean — in fact, there\u2019s no reason to believe that the unnamed project ever got off the ground.<\/p>\n

Every Euro Counts <\/strong><\/h2>\n

The EU\u2019s budget has long been a target for fraud by criminal groups, including the Italian Mafia. Scams have included creating bogus companies to fraudulently obtain grants for renewable energy projects, and claiming agricultural subsidies for non-existent land.<\/p>\n

OLAF Director General Ville It\u00e4l\u00e4 said this week that as the EU\u2019s focus turns increasingly towards developing tools to tackle climate change — and with the demands of the coronavirus pandemic — it was crucial to ensure EU funds were properly spent.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, more than ever, every euro counts, and OLAF will continue to ensure it is properly accounted for,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The agency, which has no judicial powers, issued a recommendation that REA seek to recover its funds from the consortium and that relevant national authorities initiate judicial proceedings against the individuals involved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than \u20ac400,000 ($434,000 USD) in EU funds that was supposed to go towards research on improving forest fire detection was siphoned into an unnamed Cyprus casino project, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) said this week. The bogus research program was to be carried out by a consortium of five small and medium-sized enterprises based […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":133671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFraudsters Diverted \u20ac400,000 in EU Funds into Cyprus Casino Project<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"European anti-fraud office, OLAF, says fraudsters siphoned more than 400,000 euros into a mystery casino project on the Mediterranean island Cypress.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fraudsters-diverted-e400000-in-eu-funds-into-mystery-cyprus-casino-project\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fraudsters Diverted \u20ac400,000 in EU Funds into Cyprus Casino Project\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"European anti-fraud office, OLAF, says fraudsters siphoned more than 400,000 euros into a mystery casino project on the Mediterranean island Cypress.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fraudsters-diverted-e400000-in-eu-funds-into-mystery-cyprus-casino-project\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-04-21T22:18:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-04-21T22:48:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/OLAF.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"562\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fraudsters-diverted-e400000-in-eu-funds-into-mystery-cyprus-casino-project\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fraudsters-diverted-e400000-in-eu-funds-into-mystery-cyprus-casino-project\/\",\"name\":\"Fraudsters Diverted \u20ac400,000 in EU Funds into Cyprus Casino Project\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fraudsters-diverted-e400000-in-eu-funds-into-mystery-cyprus-casino-project\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fraudsters-diverted-e400000-in-eu-funds-into-mystery-cyprus-casino-project\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/OLAF.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-04-21T22:18:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-04-21T22:48:12+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"European anti-fraud office, OLAF, says fraudsters siphoned more than 400,000 euros into a mystery casino project on the Mediterranean island Cypress.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fraudsters-diverted-e400000-in-eu-funds-into-mystery-cyprus-casino-project\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fraudsters-diverted-e400000-in-eu-funds-into-mystery-cyprus-casino-project\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fraudsters-diverted-e400000-in-eu-funds-into-mystery-cyprus-casino-project\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/OLAF.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/OLAF.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":562,\"caption\":\"The EU anti-fraud agency OLAF said the funding application for the non-existent fore-detection project had been based on lies supported by false documents. (Image: CDU\/CSU)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fraudsters-diverted-e400000-in-eu-funds-into-mystery-cyprus-casino-project\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Crime & Scandals\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/scandals\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Fraudsters Diverted \u20ac400,000 in EU Funds into Mystery Cyprus Casino Project\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Fraudsters Diverted \u20ac400,000 in EU Funds into Cyprus Casino Project","description":"European anti-fraud office, OLAF, says fraudsters siphoned more than 400,000 euros into a mystery casino project on the Mediterranean island Cypress.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fraudsters-diverted-e400000-in-eu-funds-into-mystery-cyprus-casino-project\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Fraudsters Diverted \u20ac400,000 in EU Funds into Cyprus Casino Project","og_description":"European anti-fraud office, OLAF, says fraudsters siphoned more than 400,000 euros into a mystery casino project on the Mediterranean island Cypress.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fraudsters-diverted-e400000-in-eu-funds-into-mystery-cyprus-casino-project\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2020-04-21T22:18:43+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-04-21T22:48:12+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":562,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/OLAF.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fraudsters-diverted-e400000-in-eu-funds-into-mystery-cyprus-casino-project\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fraudsters-diverted-e400000-in-eu-funds-into-mystery-cyprus-casino-project\/","name":"Fraudsters Diverted \u20ac400,000 in EU Funds into Cyprus Casino Project","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fraudsters-diverted-e400000-in-eu-funds-into-mystery-cyprus-casino-project\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fraudsters-diverted-e400000-in-eu-funds-into-mystery-cyprus-casino-project\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/OLAF.jpg","datePublished":"2020-04-21T22:18:43+00:00","dateModified":"2020-04-21T22:48:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"European anti-fraud office, OLAF, says fraudsters siphoned more than 400,000 euros into a mystery casino project on the Mediterranean island Cypress.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fraudsters-diverted-e400000-in-eu-funds-into-mystery-cyprus-casino-project\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fraudsters-diverted-e400000-in-eu-funds-into-mystery-cyprus-casino-project\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fraudsters-diverted-e400000-in-eu-funds-into-mystery-cyprus-casino-project\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/OLAF.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/OLAF.jpg","width":1000,"height":562,"caption":"The EU anti-fraud agency OLAF said the funding application for the non-existent fore-detection project had been based on lies supported by false documents. (Image: CDU\/CSU)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fraudsters-diverted-e400000-in-eu-funds-into-mystery-cyprus-casino-project\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Crime & Scandals","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/scandals\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Fraudsters Diverted \u20ac400,000 in EU Funds into Mystery Cyprus Casino Project"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133669"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}