(Bloomberg) — The European Union’s anti-fraud office has been asked to “look into” the conduct of Peter Mandelson during his time as the bloc’s trade chief, after further details of the British politician’s links with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein came to light.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, made the request on Feb. 18 “given the circumstances, and the significant amount of documents made available publicly,” according to a spokesperson.
The commission has been assessing whether there’s any breach of obligations under the EU’s treaties and Code of Conduct, the spokesperson added. Mandelson served as EU Trade Commissioner from 2004 to 2008.
Brussels-based OLAF’s role is to detect and investigate fraud, corruption, and serious misconduct involving EU funds. The commission’s request to look into the Mandelson affair doesn’t mean the authority will follow up with a case.
A representative of OLAF’s press office confirmed receipt of the commission’s request and said it was looking into the matter. The request to OLAF was previously reported by the Financial Times.
The request by the EU’s executive arm comes after UK police arrested the Labour Party grandee on suspicion of misconduct in public office after the US Department of Justice released emails allegedly showing him forwarding government information to Epstein.
The police had searched two properties linked to the former ambassador to the US last week as part of a criminal probe, which was spurred by the publication of the email cache more than three weeks ago. Some of those missives allegedly showed Mandelson disclosed potentially market-sensitive information to Epstein while serving as a UK government minister.
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