03/07/2020 (Agence Europe) – The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) announced on Thursday 2 July that it had closed an investigation into a case of corruption and money laundering linked to work undertaken by an Italian construction company through its Romanian subsidiary in the framework of an EU-funded railway infrastructure project. Opened in January 2019 as part of a joint investigation team with the Romanian National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), the Belgian Central Office for the Suppression of Corruption (OCRC), the Brussels Public Prosecutor’s Office and Eurojust, the investigation uncovered the establishment of fictitious contracts to cover illicit payments of more than €1 million involving, among others, a relative of the Romanian Minister of Transport. Part of this money was allegedly used to pay for political advertising during the campaign for the 2012 Romanian parliamentary elections. In July 2020, Romanian DNA indicted five people in this case. (MF)