When the police raided the home of the former socialist MEP and lawyer Pier Antonio Panzeri and found €500,000 in cash as part of the most serious corruption case in the European Parliament in decades, nobody noticed one of his clients was an oligarch who is the subject of the biggest civil fraud case in British legal history.
In exile the oligarch has assiduously courted European politicians to promote his defence
This tawdry scandal has focused on claims that Qatar funded an influence operation in the European parliament which resulted in the arrest and imprisonment of MEPs and a former vice-president. Over €1.5 million in cash has since been discovered stashed away in flats, offices, and hotel rooms across Brussels, France and Italy. The payments were allegedly part of a lobbying operation to bolster Qatar’s reputation and counter scrutiny during the World Cup of its human rights record. It is a devastating blow to the EU’s credibility.
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