BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union has ordered its anti-fraud office to investigate Peter Mandelson, the disgraced former British ambassador to the United States, over his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein while serving as Brussels' trade representative.
“Given the circumstances, and the significant amount of documents made available publicly, the European Commission also asked OLAF on 18 February to look into the matter,” a commission spokesperson who was not authorized to be publicly named said late Thursday.
The European Anti-Fraud Office, known by its French acronym OLAF, is the EU's watchdog agency that has tackled migration authorities and lawmakers for financial fraud and rights violations, among other violations. Its office did not confirm the investigation.
An influential British figure, Mandelson is under investigation for alleged misconduct in public office linked to his relationship with Epstein.
Mandelson’s ties to Epstein have threatened the leadership of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who appointed the veteran statesman to the diplomatic post despite warnings about his friendship with the disgraced financier.
Mandelson has been a major player for decades in the center-left Labour Party, known as a skilled political operative dubbed the “Prince of Darkness” for his cunning and ruthlessness.
He helped the party return to power in 1997 as “New Labour” under Prime Minister Tony Blair and served in senior positions until 2001. He served again, under Prime Minister Gordon Brown, from 2008 to 2010. In between those high-level positions in London, he was in Brussels, serving as the EU’s trade commissioner from November 2004 to October 2008 back before Brexit wrenched the U.K out of the bloc.
Mandelson was in contact with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell before, during and after that time in Brussels, according to documents analyzed by the AP.
“I love disgusting. That’s why I am wild and dangerous, and twice shy…” Mandelson wrote to Maxwell in a 2002 email.
“Pete I have warned you about that before” said Maxwell in reply. “Behave or you will be punished like the bad boy you are.”
In 2003, he messaged Maxwell about family travel arrangements using the title “Member of Parliament for Hartlepool, House of Commons.”
Payment records suggest Epstein gave Mandelson or his husband, Reinaldo Avila da Silva, $75,000 in 2003 and 2004. Mandelson said he had no recollection of receiving that money, questioned the authenticity of bank statements and believed the allegations were false.
Just after returning to London from Brussels, on Oct. 7, 2008, Epstein counseled Mandelson on how to frame the 2008 financial crisis as an opportunity.
Epstein offered to host Mandelson in a New York apartment in 2009, about five months before the two discussed by email manipulating then-British premier Gordon Brown to step down.
Mandelson appears to have sent Epstein, whom he referred to as his “best pal,” sensitive government information that could potentially influence markets when he was a senior minister in the British government in 2009 just after leaving the helm of the EU’s trade negotiations. The EU probe could be focused on Mandelson’s sharing of similar privileged information with Epstein.
Mandelson seems to have tipped Epstein in 2010 about the EU’s colossal half-trillion-euro bailout package to save the euro after the 2008 financial crisis. He wrote to Epstein that “sources tell me 500 b euro bailout” and should be “announced tonight” on May 9, 2010 — a day before the package was public. That information could be useful for insider trading.
All European commissioners are bound by ethical obligations and an official code of conduct during and after their time in office. Suspected breaches of those obligations can prompt investigations by OLAF.
Mandelson was released from British custody early Tuesday morning after more than nine hours of questioning. He has previously denied wrongdoing and hasn’t been charged, though the investigation is continuing.
Mandelson’s lawyers said Tuesday that he had voluntarily agreed to speak with police next month and that his arrest was the result of a “baseless suggestion” that he planned to flee the country.
Peter Mandelson ouside his home in London, Thursday Feb. 26, 2026. (James Manning/PA via AP)
FILE - EU Commissioner for Trade Peter Mandelson, left, poses with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, as he visits the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Thursday, June 7, 2007. (AP Photo/Yves Logghe, File)
BANGKOK (AP) — World shares were mostly higher on Friday after the worst day for Nvidia’s stock since last spring dragged U.S. stocks lower.
U.S. futures fell as investors focused on comments by Block CEO Jack Dorsey on his company’s decision to lay off 40% of its workforce because of labor-saving artificial intelligence.
The future for the S&P 500 edged 0.1% lower while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3%.
Germany's DAX rose 0.3% to 25,373.74, while the CAC 40 picked up less than 0.1% to 8,625.54. Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.5% to 10,904.24.
In Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 edged 0.2% higher to 58,850.27.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng jumped 1% to 26,630.54, while the Shanghai Composite index advanced 0.4% to 4,162.88.
South Korea's Kospi lost 1% to 6,244.13 as traders sold to lock in profits from recent gains.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 closed 0.3% higher at 9,198.60, while India's Sensex lost 0.8%.
On Thursday, the S&P 500 shed 0.5% and the Dow industrials added less than 0.1%. The Nasdaq composite sank 1.2%. to 22,878.38.
U.S. inflation data is due out later Friday. A report showed that the number of U.S. workers applying for unemployment benefits ticked up last week, but not by any more than economists expected. It also remains relatively low compared with history.
Nvidia, whose chips are helping to power the AI boom, reported another stellar quarter of profit growth that breezed past analysts’ expectations. Its forecast for revenue in the current quarter again topped Wall Street estimates. But such blowout performances have become so typical for Nvidia that they’re losing their oomph. Its stock sank 5.5% for its worst loss since April.
Shares in Block, formerly known as Square, gained 5% on Thursday before it reported better than expected earnings, and then shot up more than 20% after the markets closed following Dorsey's comments on laying off about 4,000 of its 10,000 employees.
“We believe Block will be signficantly more valuable as a smaller, faster, intelligence-native company. Everything we do from here is in service of that,” Dorsey wrote in a letter to shareholders.
Dorsey “just did what most CEOs have only whispered about in boardrooms,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management wrote in a commentary.
“For years we've debated whether AI would dent jobs at the margin. Now we have a public case study where the CEO explicitly says intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company,” he said.
Elsewhere on Wall Street, shares in streaming giant Netflix jumped 7.9% in pre-market trading after it walked away from its bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming business. That put Skydance-owned Paramount in a position to take over its Hollywood rival.
Netflix said the price required to buy Warner after its board announced that Paramount's offer was superior would make it a deal that is “no longer financially attractive.”
On Thursday, Warner Bros. shares edged down 0.3% after the entertainment giant reported a $252 million loss for the fourth quarter.
In other dealings early Friday, U.S. benchmark crude oil gained 89 cents to $66.10 per barrel. Crude prices have been swinging while the United States and Iran held indirect talks about Iran’s nuclear program. A barrel of U.S. crude briefly fell as low as $63.60 on Thursday before it bounced back.
The two sides walked away from the latest talks without a deal. That left the danger of another Mideast war on the table as the U.S. has gathered a massive fleet of aircraft and warships in the region.
A peaceful solution would lessen the threat of war, which could disrupt the global flow of oil and drive prices higher.
Brent crude, the international standard, gained 79 cents early Friday to $71.63 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar rose to 156.18 Japanese yen from 156.13 yen. The euro rose to $1.1805 from $1.1796.
People walk near an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person stands as a vehicle passes by in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A currency trader watches a monitor near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A currency trader passes by a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
