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A former EU commissioner and political heavyweight in Belgium is under investigation on suspicion of money laundering involving lottery tickets.
Didier Reynders’ belongings were searched and he was questioned by police on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service in Brussels said.
“The criminal investigation follows reports from the National Lottery and the Financial Processing Unit (CTIF) about suspected money laundering practices,” said prosecutor An Schoonjans in a statement.
“The criminal investigation is still ongoing,” she added, declining to provide further information. The Belgian newspaper Le Soir and outlet Follow the Money first reported on the months-long investigation into the Belgian politician.
Reynders is suspected of having used large amounts of cash to buy lottery tickets with a value between €1 and €100 for about ten years, Le Soir and FTM report. The proceeds from the lottery tickets would then have been transferred to Reynders’ account at the National Lottery, and ultimately to his bank account.
Until Sunday, Reynders was EU Commissioner for Justice, responsible for enforcing the rule of law in the bloc, as well as for agencies such as Europol and Eurojust, which facilitate cross-border operations and evidence sharing.
The searches took place two days after his immunity as commissioner was lifted.
The total amount of cash used to purchase the lottery tickets has not been reported and the source of the cash is now under investigation.
Reynders was not immediately available for comment. A spokesman for his party, Mouvement Réformateur, did not respond to a request for comment.
The French-speaking politician has been a mainstay on the Belgian political scene for decades and was Minister of Finance between 1999 and 2011. During part of this time he was also in charge of the National Lottery, although the allegations relate to a period when he was no longer active. Minister of Finance, according to the reports.
He was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium until 2019, before becoming EU Justice Commissioner.
Reynders was accused of corruption and money laundering in the Democratic Republic of Congo by a former member of the Belgian intelligence services in 2019, but the accusations were unsubstantiated at the time. The commissioner denied all allegations at the time.
After the end of his term as EU commissioner, Reynders had sought another five years as a member of Ursula von der Leyen’s team, but the Belgian government replaced him with former Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib, who is now responsible for the equality portfolio.