But it also tells the story of the systematic attempts to plunder EU funds. Summer series: European fraud With EPPO having turned five years old in June, we’re examining some of the cases they’ve investigated. Neither the EPPO nor the Commission provided further details on how exactly the scheme was connected to the recovery funds. Many of them are in Italy, which had received some €166 billion of the €428 billion disbursed so far. The direct loss to the EU fund itself was just €1.7 million – the sum extracted through forged loan applications.