Paul van Buitenen

Paul van Buitenen
Leader of Europe Transparent in the European Parliament
In office 20 July 2004 – 14 July 2009
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Member of the European Parliament
In office 20 July 2004 – 14 July 2009
Constituency	Netherlands
Personal details
Born	(1957-05-28) 28 May 1957 (age 67) Breda, Netherlands
Political party	Europe Transparent EG-EFA
Residence(s)	Breda, Netherlands
Website	(in Dutch) www.paulvanbuitenen.nl

Paul van Buitenen (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈpʌul vɑm ˈbœytənə(n)]; born 28 May 1957)^[1] is a retired Dutch politician of the Europe Transparent Party^[2] 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 Directorate becoming the whistleblower who first drew the attention of a Member of the European Parliament to the irregularities, fraud and mismanagement within the Commission in 1998. In May 2005, he also asked the European Commission to create an investigation, after learning that Frits Bolkestein (author of the Directive on services in the internal market) was a member of the Russian Bank Menatep's international consultative council (owned by Mikhail Khodorkovsky) and that he had worked for the Shell British-Dutch petrol company, two firms "detaining secret accounts in Clearstream".