Carl Deconinck
In response to the investigation of potential money laundering via high-returning scratch cards against former European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders, the Belgian National Lottery has issued a 12-page press statement on his case.
In the document released on December 11 and seen by Brussels Signal, the Belgian Lottery said Reynders’ case was “highly unusual”.
“Never before has a player accumulated several play limits in a similar way. This involves two player accounts out of a total of €2 million accounts opened with the National Lottery,” it said.
According to Belgian media the second player account was in the name Reynders’ wife, Bernadette Prignon, a retired judge.
Reynders’ behaviour was first noted in 2021 and, by February 7, 2022, the National Lottery had completed its investigation.
As a result, on March 17, 2022, it filed a report with the federal prosecutor’s office, fulfilling its legal obligation to report such matters.
Given the identity and the highly specific legal status of the account holders involved, the report was filed with the utmost confidentiality, the lottery noted.
In 2023, Reynders and his wife again showed noticeable behaviour.
Only a limited number of individuals, whose involvement was strictly necessary under the procedure, were informed. Ultimately, these were only “indications” of possible crimes. The Belgian prosecutor’s office requested that all information related to Reynders be preserved and the National Lottery fully co-operated.
“In the meantime, the National Lottery could not take any measures that might obstruct or compromise the judicial investigation, such as blocking transactions, halting the sale of e-vouchers at retail points, or closing player accounts,” it said in the press release.
The prosecutor’s office finally took action in early December this year, just days after Reynders ceased to be a European Commissioner and lost parts of his legal immunity that came with the role.
The Belgian Lottery said they issued the press release to underline the unique aspects of the case. Its platform is not widely used for money laundering, the amounts were limited. It said and the statement also corrected certain claims made in the media after the case was made public.
It stressed that the National Lottery had, it said, the lowest risk in the gambling sector, which was the reason why the EU gave it an exemption in its regulation changes in 2015. That was just before Reynders became justice commissioner. It added that checks are more rigorous for the National Lottery than elsewhere.
An alleged money laundering scheme tied to former European Commissioner Didier Reynders is uniquely shielded by a recent EU exemption for national lotteries. https://t.co/ktgaKTJRwk
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) December 5, 2024
According to the lottery, media reports about how easy it was to allegedly launder large sums of cash through its operations “caused severe damage to our image”.
“The strictest rules in the fight against money laundering are applied, such as compulsory identification through the national register number,” it said.
Reynders and his wife maxed out their annual deposit limits of €25,000, having put in €200,000. On December 6, public media RTBF reported that Reynders had to account for deposits totalling €1 million.
Reynders has so far not commented on the case but his lawyer said a few days ago that he disputed “the criminal qualification given to the facts”.
From 1999 to 2011, Reynders was Minister of Finance in Belgium and was politically responsible for the Belgian Lottery between 2007 and 2011.
He has been accused of wrongdoing and corruption several times but never found guilty by a Belgian court.