Press Release: Commission provides support to OLAF and Belgian authorities on investigation into fraud in grain trade prices

With the agreement of the European Commission, OLAF and Belgian investigators raided Commission offices on 15 October 2003 in the context of their investigation into a possible case of fraud and/or corruption of a European Union official working in the Directorate General for Agriculture. This official and a colleague from the same DG have been moved to other posts within the DG, as a precautionary step. Further actions will be taken based on the information to be received from the Belgian authorities. The information available to the Commission at this stage points towards a case in which an official is said to have accepted bribes in return for passing on commercially interesting information to external companies.