Belgian police have arrested a European Commission official from its directorate general for agriculture, who is suspected of tipping off major cereal trading companies about grain market prices two hours before they were officially announced.
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
A further arrest was made in Belgium and six others in France following an investigation also involving French and Dutch police plus the European Union (EU) anti-fraud office OLAF.
Police raided the Paris and Rotterdam headquarters of two French and Dutch cereals groups, and Belgian judicial authorities seized large volume of documents and computer files in Brussels. Offences alleged by investigators in Belgium include corruption of an international civil servant, violation of professional secrecy and criminal conspiracy.