European action month targets corruption in public and private sectors.
The Central Anti-Corruption Office within the French National Police (OCLCIFF Police Nationale), has coordinated several long-running operational actions, supported by Europol, which targeted forms of corruption at all levels. The operational activities were implemented under the EMPACT framework. This setup further increased cooperation between the specialised units of the participating countries, as well as the exchange of information on anti-corruption investigations. In November 2023, a number of actions were implemented by authorities from Albania, Belgium, France, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands and Portugal.
Europol’s latest Serious and Organised Crime Threat assessment (EU SOCTA) report highlights that 60% of the criminal networks use corruption to facilitate their criminal activities. Continuing the fight against corruption is therefore crucial to bring down the criminal networks that pose the most serious risks to the security of EU citizens.
Swift and close cooperation between national authorities is decisive in successfully addressing corruption. The announcement of the results of these latest EMPACT actions is timely as the International Anti-Corruption Day takes place on 9 December, marking 20 years since the United Nations Convention against Corruption.
Austria, Croatia, Finland Hungary, Latvia, Netherlands, Spain and Sweden have also participated in previous strategic and operational actions within the same EMPACT annual action plan against corruption.
Global results of the actions in November:
- 49 cases
- 233 persons of interest interviewed, some of whom were arrested
- 267 searches
- EUR 5.5 million of frozen assets
Corruption, misappropriation of funds and misconduct in public office
The investigations targeted a number of corruption related crimes including bribery and kickbacks, bid-rigging, trading in influence, collusion, conflict of interest, trading of information, embezzlement, favouritism and nepotism. The operational actions focused on corruption cases affecting politically exposed persons and foreign public officials, as well as corruption cases related to public procurement and investigations involving law enforcement and judicial authorities. National authorities also targeted different corruption practices in private companies as well as corruption in sports.
One example is a Portuguese case, which targeted the misappropriation of funds and abuse of positions in office. The Portuguese authorities investigated the use of public money by a political party between 2018 and 2021, which resulted in 20 searches. In another case, the Dutch authorities arrested three suspects as part of a bribery investigation into divulging confidential information linked to a procurement procedure of an oil storage company. This led to the seizure of EUR 2.5 million.
In a third case, the French authorities arrested an elected official who had executive functions in French overseas territories, together with two of his accomplices, directors of a company in which he had a vested interest. The value of the public procurement contracts signed by the company, notably with the administration supervised by the elected representative, amounts to EUR 2.3 million.
Europol support to corruption investigations
Together with France, Europol co-leads the annual operational action plan against corruption, implemented in the framework of EMPACT CFMLAR. Europol facilitated the information exchange and the operational coordination. The Agency also provided analytical support to assist law national authorities in combating corruption.
During a number of action days, Europol deployed analysts to locations to cross-checked operational information in real-time against Europol’s databases and provide technical expertise. In addition to the November actions, cases on corruption supported by Europol in the second half of 2023 resulted in the identification of 75 suspects in corruption related investigations.
Involved law enforcement authorities
Albania: Albanian State Police (Policia e Shtetit)
Belgium: Federal Police (Office central de répression de la corruption – Police Judiciaire fédérale)
France: National Police (Police Nationale)
Greece: General Directorate of Financial and Economic crime SDOE
Ireland: National Guard (An Garda Siochana)
Netherlands: Anticorruption Centre of the Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD)
Portugal: Judicial Police (Policia Judiciaria)
Source – Europol