Court freezes bank accounts of fired bosses of Walloon energy company Nethys

Court freezes bank accounts of fired bosses of Walloon energy company Nethys
Credit: © Belga

The bank accounts of three former top executives of Nethys have been frozen in an attempt by the energy company to recover parts of the million-euro bonuses the trio pocketed just before being fired.

The new management of the Liège-based group requested a judge to order that the bank and insurance accounts of Pol Heyse, Bénédicte Bayer and Stéphane Moreau be frozen, according to De Tijd.

Banks were given 15 days to report the amount of money contained in their clients' accounts.

Moreau, Bayer and Heyse were dismissed from their positions without severance pay in October, following a series of high-tension developments surrounding their decision to sell subsidiaries of the group in "opaque conditions," a sale ultimately annulled by the Walloon government.

The three former executives are also under investigation regarding indemnities they received through "artificial" means in order to allow them to bypass new Walloon regulations capping the yearly salaries of some managerial positions at €245,000.

They reportedly received a combined €18 million just ahead of their departure in October, with Le Soir saying that the ongoing investigation will rule whether a decision by an in-company committee to grant them a series of indemnities and bonuses on top of their salaries was legal.

Moreau, who left his position as mayor of the municipality of Ans in 2017 to take up a position in the company board, was reported to have pocketed between €8 and €9 million at the end of October.

The freezing of their accounts comes as Nethys' new management attempts to recover up to €15 million before cutting ties with them, RTL reports.

Gabriela Galindo

The Brussels Times


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