BRUSSELS, December 11. /TASS/. The former European Commissioner for Justice, Belgian politician Didier Reynders, who notably oversaw the seizure of Russian assets in the European Commission and developed the mechanism by which they would be expropriated, is suspected of laundering at least one million euros, Le Soir newspaper reported.
On December 4, the newspaper reported that Belgian police searched his apartments in Brussels and Liege. After that Reynders and his wife were interrogated, but no arrests were made.
On December 11, information about the amount of money involved in the financial misconduct came out. As the newspaper reported, Reynders will have to explain how he came into possession of a cool one million euros in cash. He deposited 800,000 euros into his bank account in small increments, and another 200,000 into his National Lottery player's electronic account, from which he withdrew sixty percent of these funds as supposed "winnings." It was these transactions through the National Lottery that tipped off the investigation to the alleged money laundering.
According to the publication, Reynders and his wife purchased pre-paid cards to top up their National Lottery player's electronic account all in cash, spending 25,000 euros per year. All purchases were made in the same Uccle bookstore, in the south of Brussels, where the couple lives. These cards are special because they can be purchased with cash without providing any ID. The Belgian National Lottery reported that Reynders became the largest buyer in the country's history, having bought 3% of all cards in the country in 2023 alone.
As Le Soir notes, the National Lottery has issued a separate statement saying that Reynders told them that he allegedly suffers from a gambling addiction. According to the company, Reynders' actions are not consistent with those of someone with a gambling addiction, as such a gambler would not have withdrawn 60% of the funds from the account, but rather would have tried to play more, trying to win more money. It also claimed that buying the cards with cash is suspicious as well, since "this requires a lot of additional time and effort."
The police and the media have not yet provided any explanations as to where the former European Commissioner could have gotten 1 million euros in cash. In Brussels, they often pay for various lobbying services in cash so as not to attract attention to them, an activity rife with corruption, but one which rarely leads to arrests. In addition to serving on the European Commission from 2019 to 2024, where his salary was over 25,000 euros per month, Reynders was one of Belgium's leading politicians for 20 years, serving as the leader of the local liberal French-speaking party, the Reform Movement, and as a member of several Belgian governments.