Brussels – One of Belgium’s political heavyweights has ended up at the center of an investigation into a possible money laundering ring that has been going on for years and on which federal authorities have been working for several months. Belgian police questioned Didier Reynders, several times a minister and later European Commissioner for Justice in the first College led by Ursula von der Leyen, and searched his homes yesterday (Dec. 3). However, it was not yet clear if incriminating evidence was found.
Le Soir and Follow the Money first broke the news with an exclusive from Belgian investigators. The Ecofin section of the capital’s Federal Judicial Police searched Reynders Tuesday morning and questioned him in the afternoon. They also conducted raids during the day at his homes, one in Uccle, south of Brussels, and one near Vissoul, in the Walloon countryside between Liège and Namur. Authorities have not disclosed whether they found any cash during the search.
The suspected money laundering
The alleged crime is money laundering through gambling. Specifically, Reynders is suspected of having purchased a substantial amount of lottery tickets over an extended period and for an allegedly large sum of money, although the actual size is unknown.
The alleged tickets are electronic vouchers worth 1 to 100 euros, available at any National Lottery point of sale. According to information from the preliminary investigation, at least some of the tickets were allegedly purchased in cash, with the winnings allegedly deposited into the digital account registered to the former commissioner at the National Lottery and from there transferred to his personal bank account.
It all began with reports from the Financial Intelligence Processing Unit (CTIF) and the National Lottery, which Reynders led from 2007 to 2011. The investigation, launched last year by the Brussels prosecutor Frédéric Van Leeuw, actually covers a later period, the beginning of which is unknown but stretching back to at least 2023, when Reynders had already been part of von der Leyen’s first team for four years.
The issue of immunity
According to the press reports, the federal police waited until Reynders finished his term of office because, otherwise, they would have had to ask the College to suspend the Belgian commissioner’s immunity, effectively giving him an advantage during the investigation. This detail was confirmed today (Dec. 4) by spokespersons for the EU executive, who explained that Commissioners have functional immunity covering acts they perform in their official capacity in the interest of the Union. This immunity continues to apply even after they leave office, but which acts fall within its scope must be determined on a case-by-case basis, they stressed.
As stipulated in Article 245 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU), should a breach of the obligations be established, the European Court of Justice may rule, at the request of the Council or the Commission, that the commissioner be “compulsorily retired” or “deprived of his right to a pension or other benefits in its stead.” In any case, spokespersons assured reporters, the Berlaymont Palace did not have any information about the alleged illegal activities carried out by Reynders and has so far not been contacted by investigators, to whom, however, it will guarantee full cooperation where appropriate.
Nevertheless, Reynders still enjoys residual immunity as a former minister, which allowed him to undergo questioning without being deprived of his freedom. If the prosecutor decides to indict the former federal government member, they will have to request the Chamber of Representatives to revoke his immunity.
Who is Didiers Reynders
Reynders is a key figure in the Mouvement réfourmateur (MR), one of the major liberal parties in French-speaking Belgium to which outgoing premier Alexander De Croo and former European Council president Charles Michel also belong. Before obtaining the Justice portfolio in the first von der Leyen College, he served continuously as a minister in the Belgian government for 20 years, from 1999 to 2019: first as head of Finance (1999-2011) and later as head of Foreign Affairs.
He has twice tried to become secretary-general of the Council of Europe (the main human rights enforcement body on the Old Continent, based in Strasbourg) without succeeding. Instead of confirming him as a candidate for the second von der Leyen commission, MR leader Georges-Louis Bouchez preferred former Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib, an outcome for which Reynders expressed “deep disappointment.”
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
