Didier Reynders (Francophone liberal MR), the former Belgian cabinet minister, who also served as the Belgian on the European Commission has been officially charged with money laundering, media outlets De Standaard, Le Soir, Le Vif and the Dutch investigative platform Follow The Money report. Judicial sources have confirmed the news to the VRT. Reynders is said to have been questioned by investigators on 16 October.
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Former European commissioner Didier Reynders charged with money laundering
Colin Clapson
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In December last year, it emerged that a judicial investigation had been opened into possible money laundering practices by the former Belgian finance, justice and foreign minister.
Reynders is alleged to have used cash to buy National Lottery scratch cards for many years in order to see the profits laundered back into his account. The matter has come to a head after the National Lottery reported suspected money laundering to the competent authorities in 2022.
The money laundering investigation also looked at the regular deposit of large sums of cash at a bank. The total amount involved suspicious transactions said to be up to 1 million euros.
Almost a year after the case came to light, Reynders has now been officially charged. Reynders's wife, former senior magistrate Bernadette Prignon, has not been charged De Standaard writes.
What's the story?
Didier Reynders is alleged to have bought National Lottery tickets using cash for years, for a total amount of up to 200,000 euros. He deposited the winnings into his account allowing the money to be laundered.
The investigation also looked at sums of cash that Reynders deposited into an ING account between 2008 and 2018. These were relatively small amounts but totalled 700,000 euros. Together with the amounts for scratch cards, approximately 1 million euros is involved in all.
The Brussels Public Prosecutor's Office is conducting a separate investigation into the role in this case played by Dutch bank ING. The bank only queried the deposits for a first time in 2018 and only informed the Financial Intelligence Processing Unit (CFI) in 2023. Normally, banks are required to report suspicious transactions immediately.