In the past few days, a bombshell nine-minute undercover video erupted on X (formerly Twitter), unleashing a storm of controversy over the very integrity of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), the EU’s frontline defender against financial crimes. Uploaded by the enigmatic account “Corruption Kills” (@anggawarella), the footage captures Constantin Boscan, a former legal advisor inside the EPPO, spilling damning secrets during casual meetings.
Boscan doesn’t hold back, accusing the organization’s top brass, Chief Prosecutor Laura Codruța Kövesi, of turning the independent anti-corruption enforcer of the EU into a captured regulator, where some cases against well-connected politicians are expunged without recourse or liability, even hinting at backroom deals and favoritism.
Crafted like a hard-hitting investigative report, the video already racked up over 100,000 views and multiple comments by Euro Skeptic commentators. Boscan has since admitted the recordings are real but have been recorded without his knowledge.
EPPO was born from a 2017 EU regulation and kicked off operations on June 2021, after long deliberations between EU power brokers, the office was billed as an autonomous guardian of the bloc’s coffers, probing fraud, corruption, and money laundering tied to EU funds. Critics have alleged that creating a EU Prosecutor might be another Brussels power grab, meddling in member states’ sovereign courts. Resistance has been fierce from the start, with nations balking at the erosion of their judicial independence.
EPPO’s first and current leader is Laura Codruța Kövesi, a Romanian firebrand that burst onto the scene as Romania’s youngest prosecutor general in 2006, then led the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) from 2013 to 2018, nailing high-profile scalps, politicians, mayors, tycoons, and earning global kudos for gutting systemic graft. In Romania, Codruta Kovesi is considered a lightning rod, accused of power abuses. She was ousted from her position in 2018 by the Social Democratic government with accusations of malfeasance, bribery, and perjury, charges she swatted away as political hit jobs. The divide runs deep: saintly reformer to some, institutional wrecking ball to others. Under her, the DNA was compared to Ceausescu’s Securitate.
The core of the video is Constantin Boscan. A lawyer, formerly employed by EPPO as a lawyer and legal advisor to Laura Codruta Kovesi until 2023. Over multiple recorded conversations, he exposes EPPO bare. He explains, in simple terms and a slight Romanian accent, that cases which deal with connected people, in spite of overwhelming evidence, were “disappeared and shredded”.
He goes further to note that the shredding was so outrageous that he had to gather evidence and save the docket files of the destroyed cases. He updated Laura personally, to which she “closed her eyes”.
Boscan blames Kövesi(“the boss”) for burying solid cases against plugged-in Euro-politicians. Sensitive probes get archived or rerouted on her watch. And the vibe inside? A “family” or straight-up “mafia,” where blind loyalty beats competence. Dissenters like Boscan, who fired off those ignored emails, face the boot.
Even more damning is the fact that the video contains insider emails from EPPO, corroborating Boscan’s account of the events. Boscan claims that once he alerted his superiors at EPPO of the unlawful shredding, they ignored him and ultimately fired him. His emails show exactly that.
The fallout, if proven, could crater the EU’s prosecutor. Trust in institutions? Already fragile after 2010s farm-subsidy scandals, the EPPO was meant to rebuild it, but political puppetry claims would turbocharge Euroskeptics demanding overhaul.
Ongoing cases, hundreds yearly, might unravel under bias scrutiny, from COVID fund heists to beyond. Politically, it emboldens Brussels bashers clashing over rule-of-law “hypocrisy”.
Boscan’s tale screams for better whistleblower shields; without them, silence reigns, opacity festers. Optimistically, this leak could force transparency.