€280,000 for… sand? European Public Prosecutor investigates alleged mussel farm fraud near Cape Emine

Underwater inspections ordered by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office in Sofia have recently revealed that an EU-funded mussel farm in the Black Sea may in fact be nothing more than sand.

The project concerns an “innovative black mussel farm” financed under the Maritime and Fisheries Programme and located in the Black Sea, southeast of Cape Emine, in the municipality of Nesebar.

Approved in July 2020 under a grant agreement with a completion deadline of September 2021, the farm was expected to become operational in July of that year. An expert from the Institute of Oceanology in Varna was listed as the author of the technical design, yet the investigation found that he had neither prepared nor signed it.

After a request for final payment was submitted, an on-site inspection in August 2021 by Bulgaria’s State Fund “Agriculture” uncovered discrepancies between the declared and the actual implementation of the project. Inspectors found only four buoys marking the supposed site; the underwater installations could not be verified due to a lack of suitable equipment.

At the request of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, on 1 October this year investigators and divers from the General Directorate “Border Police” – Burgas carried out a seabed inspection covering 240,000 square metres using underwater and aerial drones. They identified three surface buoys at the designated coordinates, while one was missing — and none of them were connected to each other. The underwater video footage showed no trace of any infrastructure associated with a mussel farm; the seabed was entirely sandy.

For the implementation of the project, the beneficiary received more than €280,000, of which over €210,000 came from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and the remainder from the national budget.

The investigation is ongoing, supported by the General Directorate “National Police.”

Source: BNR