OLAF closes probe into mystery suicide

Date: 08/05/03

By David Cronin

ANTI-fraud office OLAF is set to close its file on the mystery suicide of a European Commission official after it found no firm evidence linking his death to claims of corruption and a freemason conspiracy.

Antonio Quatraro, an official with the directorate-general for agriculture, died after leaping from his office window on Brussels' Rue de la Loi in 1993. He had been subject to an internal probe over alleged links with a tobacco smuggling cartel.

OLAF launched a probe into the case last November after it received a dossier from Dougal Watt, a whistleblower from the European Court of Auditors, detailing accusations about the Quatraro affair.

However, OLAF found nothing to firm up the claim that senior figures in DG Agriculture were part of a freemason plot.

The original investigation was handled by OLAF's precursor UCLAF. One OLAF member described that inquiry as "not satisfactory at all" because UCLAF was "totally dependent" on help from member states. Of those, only Italy's authorities decided to open a judicial inquiry. The Italian case was dismissed in 1998 for lack of evidence.

An additional problem, said the source, is that corruption involving EU officials in Brussels did not become an offence under Belgian law until the mid-1990s. Any criminal proceedings at this stage would, therefore, be counter to the principle of "non-retroactivity".

Meanwhile, OLAF has contacted the Belgian judicial authorities about a business consultancy in the country accused of forging an "anti-terrorism certificate", claiming it was issued by the European Commission. The company then used this to obtain €528,000 from a US firm.

Anti-fraud office OLAF is set to close its file on the suicide of European Commission official Antonio Quatraro after it found no firm evidence linking his death to claims of corruption.