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Sensitive documents have disappeared from Europol in The Hague, news site Politico reports after its own investigation. This would include personnel files of key directors of the organization.
The documents are said to have disappeared last summer. This reportedly concerns the personnel files of CEO Catherine De Bolle and directors Jürgen Ebner, Andrei Linț, and Jean-Philippe Lecouffe.
The news site obtained an internal note from the organization. It states that in September it was reported that documents about several employees had disappeared. Afterwards it would have come to light that more data was missing.
The incident is described as a serious breach of security. The files were in a secure room at the headquarters of the EU organization, a partnership of national police forces.
Sensitive personnel files are in a safe where few people know the combination, an insider told the news site. It is completely unclear how the files disappeared and that is causing internal unrest.
After the incident, human resources chief Massimiliano Bettin was reportedly sent home temporarily. There is speculation that the files were removed to damage Bettin over an internal conflict, a source told Politico.
Some documents later resurfaced. A citizen allegedly found them somewhere in The Hague and handed the files in to a police station. Europol declined to comment to Politico.