The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) has announced that fraud involving EU funds exceeded €1 billion in 2023.
OLAF’s primary mission is to investigate potential fraud and corruption involving EU budget funds, and its findings are then referred to relevant European and national authorities for further action.
In 2023, OLAF recommended that authorities recover a total of €1.04 billion.
Additionally, OLAF’s investigation team tracked €209 million that was at risk of misuse but had not yet been spent.
Throughout the year, OLAF initiated 190 new investigations following 1,178 preliminary assessments and successfully concluded 265 of these cases.
New U.S. sanctions against Russia have led to the immediate suspension of dollar and euro trading on the Moscow Exchange, Russia’s main financial marketplace.
In response to the sanctions, both the exchange and the central bank released statements aimed at cutting financial support for Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine.
“Due to the introduction of restrictive measures by the United States against the Moscow Exchange Group, exchange trading and settlements of deliverable instruments in U.S. dollars and euros are suspended,” stated the central bank.
This suspension means that banks, companies, and investors can no longer trade these currencies via the central exchange, which offers benefits such as liquidity, clearing, and oversight.
