The former mayor of the West Flemish municipality of Staden Francesco Vanderjeugd (former Flemish liberal) has been given a 1-year suspended prison sentence after having been found guilty of embezzlement and conflict of interest by a court in Kortrijk (West Flanders). Mr Vanderjeugd faced prosecution for suspect real estate transactions during his time as mayor.
Former mayor and MP given 1-year suspended prison sentence for embezzlement and conflict of interest
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In addition to a 1-year suspended prison sentence Francesco Vanderjeugd has been fined 24,000 euro and banned from public office for 10 years. A sum of 178,000 euro was also confiscated by the court.
Mr Vanderjeugd was mayor of the West Flemish municipality of Staden from 2013 to 2024. He became mayor aged just 24 and was the youngest mayor in the country. He combined his position as mayor with running a barbershop. Mr Vanderjeugd was also a member of the Flemish Parliament for the Flemish liberals between 2014 and 2019.
Embezzlement and conflict of interest
During his time as mayor of Staden, Francesco Vanderjeugd bought some land in the municipality, knowing that it would increase in value. The land was earmarked for a future construction project, and as mayor Mr Vanderjeugd had knowledge of that project prior to purchasing the land. This was knowledge that other purchasers didn’t have. The prosecution said that this allowed him to resell the land at a much higher profit.
The court said as he was mayor at the time, Mr Vanderjeugd he “participated in meetings about the redevelopment of the area where the land is located”.
In July 2018 Francesco Vanderjeugd bought a house with land and warehouse for 300,000 euro. Just over a year later, he sold that property to a construction company for 585,000 euros. In January 2020, he bought two houses through an intermediary for 222,000 and 260,000 euro respectively. The intermediary had also tried but failed to push down the price of one of those houses, with an appraisal report obtained from the municipal authority. Barely a month later, the two houses were sold for 660,000 euro.
The former MP has always denied any insider trading. During the court case, Mr Vanderjeugd said he had acted as private citizen and not as mayor, and that he had just done his best to avoid any semblance of a conflict of interest. However, the court thought differently and convicted him of embezzlement and conflict of interest.