He is suspected of having engaged in money laundering activities through purchases of games of chance, at a time when he was still a minister in the Belgian federal government.
Former Belgian minister and former European Commissioner Didier Reynders was questioned by the Belgian police on Tuesday December 3, and his Brussels home searched, in an investigation into suspicions of money laundering. A source close to the matter confirmed to AFP the information revealed in the evening by the daily The evening .
The investigation, placed under the authority of the Brussels Attorney General, was opened in 2023 following denunciations from the Financial Information Processing Unit and the National Lottery, according to the same source. Didier Reynders, 66, is suspected of having engaged in money laundering activities through purchases of games of chance during a period when he was still a federal government minister. No amount was specified. Two days after the end of his mandate as European Commissioner, Didier Reynders was interviewed by the police, without deprivation of liberty, again according to the source close to the case, and “there were several searches” one of which targeted his home in the Brussels commune of Uccle. According to The eveninghis country house in Wallonia was also searched.
European Commissioner for Justice during Ursula von der Leyen's first term (2019-2024) Didier Reynders was responsible for the issue of protecting the rule of law within the EU. Previously, this French-speaking liberal was a figure in Belgian governments for twenty years, serving for a long time as Minister of Finance (1999-2011), before becoming head of diplomacy (2011-2019). This year he was a candidate for reappointment as European commissioner designated by Belgium but his party, the Reform Movement (MR, liberal), preferred Hadja Lahbib, 54, who had been head of Belgian diplomacy since July 2022.
