In 2000, internal auditors raised concerns about fictitious contracts of Eurostat with outside companies and referred the matter to the European Anti-Fraud Office, OLAF.
[citation needed] In 2001, Paul van Buitenen, whose earlier report had indirectly led to the resignation of the previous Santer Commission, produced a second report, but this at first led to no action, until Hans-Martin Tillack and the press started to take interest in the matter.
Questions were asked in the European Parliament, OLAF produced a new report entitled "A vast enterprise for looting community funds" as it was reported by Financial Times on May 16, 2003.
Three senior Eurostat officials were removed from their posts and a number of contracts with outside companies were cancelled.
[1] It was alleged that, at least during the 1990s, Eurostat used a double accounting system to transfer large amounts of money to secret bank accounts not monitored by auditors and that the value of some contracts was inflated.