BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union's executive body was accused Thursday of failing to properly check the business interests of its top officials after leaked documents showed its former competition chief was a director of an offshore company based in the Bahamas. Critics pounced on the revelation that Neelie Kroes, who led the European Commission's powerful anti-trust unit between 2004 and 2010 and is now a paid adviser to Uber and Bank of America, had an undisclosed interest in a company in the Bahamas as further evidence of the EU Commission's lax approach to vetting. Mint Holdings had been allegedly set up from the United Arab Emirates, with the aim of raising money to buy some assets from energy giant Enron, which subsequently collapsed following an accounting scandal. Kroes, who in 2010 moved on to become the Commissioner responsible for digital matters until 2014, said through a lawyer that she did not declare her role because the company never became operational, according to the ICIJ. "Barroso has already undermined the image and the credibility of the Commission by announcing that he will work for Goldman Sachs, the bank which helped Greece to conceal its public accounts," said Gianni Pittella, president of Socialist and Democrats group in the European Parliament. The very same politicians that preach to our people to cut back on wages, pensions and public services join shady criminals in the trillion euro industry of tax dodging, money laundering and corruption, said left-wing German lawmaker, Fabio De Masi.
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