Head of OLAF dies

Franz-Hermann Brüner, the head of the EU’s anti-fraud office, dies at the age of 64.

The head of the EU’s anti-fraud unit OLAF, Franz-Hermann Brüner, has died at the age of 64 after a long illness, the European Commission announced this afternoon.

Brüner had headed OLAF since it was created in 1999. A spokeswoman for José Manuel Barroso, the Commission’s president, said Brüner had established the unit “as a credible, efficient and respected actor in fighting fraud and corruption”.

He was one of “the leading figures in his field, commanding respect in political circles and civil society”, she said.

Barroso and Siim Kallas, the European commissioner in charge of anti-fraud efforts, have sent a message to Brüner’s widow praising his “relentless commitment and energetic contribution to fighting fraud”.

Brüner was re-appointed for a second five-year term in October 2005 amid controversy about OLAF’s record, in particular its role in a case brought by Belgian police against Hans-Martin Tillack, a journalist for the German newspaper Stern accused of bribing an OLAF official to obtain classified documents.

Brüner moved to Brussels after heading the anti-fraud unit in the Office of the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1998. He had previously headed the Munich prosecutor’s office efforts to fight organised crime, fraud and corruption for three years, from 1996-98.

Before the focus of his career turned to fraud and corruption, Brüner served on the bench as an investigating and full judge, in various senior posts in the offices of public prosecutors in Munich and Berlin, and for three years in the justice ministry in Saxony.

Click here to read a European Voice profile of Franz-Hermann Brüner from 2000.