Franz-Hermann Brüner (14 September 1945 – 9 January 2010) was a German public official who served as the director-general of the

European Anti-Fraud Office The European Anti-Fraud Office (commonly known as OLAF, from the ) is a body mandated by the European Union (EU) with protecting the Union's financial interests. It was founded on 28 April 1999, under the European Commission Decision 1999/352. ...

(OLAF). He was first appointed to the post in 2000, and was reappointed to the post in 2006 over the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

’s preferred candidate.Brüner reappointed director-general of OLAF - vnunet.com
/ref> Brüner was born in

Bad Nauheim Bad Nauheim () is a town in the Wetteraukreis district of Hesse state of Germany. As of 2020, Bad Nauheim has a population of 32,493. The town is approximately north of Frankfurt am Main, on the east edge of the Taunus mountain range. It is a w ...

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

and began his working life as an apprentice businessman in

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the ...

in 1968. Three years later he went to the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

to study law, economics and political science, and in 1976 joined the Ministry of Justice in

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

to train for the judiciary. In 1979 he became an investigating and trial judge in criminal matters at the Municipal Court

Weilheim in Oberbayern Weilheim in Oberbayern (, ; officially Weilheim i.OB) is a town in Germany, the capital of the district Weilheim-Schongau in the south of Bavaria. Weilheim has an old city-wall, historic houses and a museum. Local history Up to the 18th cent ...

. He transferred to be public prosecutor in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

in 1981, and because Deputy Head of the Criminal Law section of the German Federal Ministry of Justice from 1983 to 1986. He was then transferred back to be a full Judge in Weilheim, where he served for a further three years. Brüner then became Deputy Head of the Criminal Law Department of the Public Prosecutor's office in Munich, and in 1991 was Senior Public Prosecutor at the Office of the General Prosecutor in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. He headed the Criminal Law Department of the Ministry of Justice in

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

from 1993 to 1995 before becoming Senior Prosecutor in the Office of the General Prosecutor in Munich for a year. From 1996 to 1998 he was made Head of the Department fighting against organised crime, fraud and corruption. His first post outside Germany was in April 1998 when he was appointed Head of the Anti-Fraud Unit and Deputy Head of the Economics Department of the Office of the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was still working there when appointed to be director of OLAF from 1 March 2000. Dutch EP member

Paul van Buitenen Paul van Buitenen (; born 28 May 1957) is a retired Dutch politician of the Europe Transparent Party who served as a Member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2009. He was an assistant-auditor in the European Commission's Financial Control ...

has criticized Brüner heavily on several occasions, suggesting that the fraud hunter acted less than scrupulously himself. In particular, selection procedures for staff are suspected to have been irregular, lacking in transparency and not in accordance with the Staff Regulations of the European Commission. Brüner died on 9 January 2010.

References

External links

www.neurope.eu
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bruener, Franzhermann 1945 births 2010 deaths 20th-century German judges People from Bad Nauheim Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Jurists from Hesse