European Prosecutors Charge 15 in a €3.5 Million Scheme to Rig Recovery-Funded IT Contracts

The European Public Prosecutor's Office (Procuradoria Europeia, or EPPO) has charged 15 defendants — 12 people and three companies — in an alleged scheme to rig public contracts funded by Portugal's post-pandemic recovery money, in a case that reaches into the heart of a public university. Investigators say the fraud, uncovered in a probe codenamed "Operation Nexus" (Operação Nexus), cost the European Union more than €3.5 million.

According to the prosecutors, the defendants ran an organised and systematic operation to obtain privileged information about upcoming tenders and steer the awards to favoured suppliers. The contracts in question covered the purchase of computing and cybersecurity equipment for a public university and a group of secondary schools, paid for with money from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (Plano de Recuperação e Resiliência, or PRR) — the Portuguese share of the EU's pandemic-recovery fund.

Tenders 'designed for the winner'

The mechanics described by the EPPO are strikingly deliberate. Procurement procedures for IT hardware were, investigators allege, systematically written to match the commercial interests and technical specifications of a particular vendor, so that the "competition" was effectively decided before it began. Pulling that off required insiders: the scheme is said to have relied on the cooperation of public officials, among them a university vice-rector and several professors, working alongside the suppliers and the bodies awarding the contracts.

Two of the defendants have been placed in preventive detention, the most restrictive measure available before trial and a sign of how seriously the prosecutors regard the case. The University of Porto (Universidade do Porto), whose name has surfaced in connection with the investigation, has stated that it bears no criminal responsibility in the Nexus process.

Why the case matters

• Recovery money under the microscope. Portugal has received billions in PRR funds, and Brussels has made clear it expects rigorous controls; cases like this test whether they work.
• A dedicated EU prosecutor. The EPPO exists precisely to pursue fraud against the Union budget across borders, and its involvement signals the reach now trained on misused recovery cash.
• Institutions in the frame. Allegations touching a vice-rector and academics strike at the credibility of public bodies entrusted with taxpayer money.

A charge is not a conviction, and the defendants will have their day in court to contest the accusations. But the case adds to a run of scrutiny over how Portugal is spending its recovery windfall, from delayed public-works tenders to questions about oversight, at a moment when the country is racing to absorb the last tranches of PRR money before the programme's 2026 deadline. For the EU's prosecutors, Operation Nexus is a marker that the money comes with watchers attached.