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Tom Vandendriessche himself not aware of OLAF investigation

by AI | 05.Jun 2024 | Europe in brief AI

The EU’s anti-fraud agency, OLAF, is said to have launched an investigation into MEP Tom Vandendriessche of Vlaams Belang. He himself says he is not aware of it.

The headquarters of the European Anti-Fraud Office OLAF in Brussels.

Brussels – Member of the European Parliament Tom Vandendriessche, from the far-right party Vlaams Belang, says he has not been informed that OLAF would have opened an investigation into him. However, he received “about a year ago” a letter stating that a dismissed employee had made a report against him to the European anti-fraud office.

The magazine Humo and the news website Apache write on Wednesday that OLAF has opened an investigation into Vandendriessche, who is also the European lead candidate of Vlaams Belang in the upcoming Sunday elections. There is talk of a letter, dated two months ago, mentioning that an investigation would have been started following a complaint.
What charges Vandendriessche faces is not known, but there is talk of “a suspicion of misuse of European funds”.

Vandendriessche himself says he does not know what the investigation is about. “About a year ago, I received a letter from OLAF stating that a dismissed employee had made a report about me. But since then, I have heard nothing more, I have not received any letter two months ago either.” He dismisses the complaint of his dismissed ex-employee as “an attempt to destabilize me”.

At OLAF itself, it is heard that the anti-fraud office is “not in a position” to give details about the cases it does or does not handle.