In the ongoing money laundering investigation involving former Minister and ex-European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, the federal judicial police conducted searches in June at the home and shop of Brussels antique dealer Olivier Theunissen, as reported by the investigative site nationale4.be and confirmed by the Brussels public prosecutor’s office.
Le Soir and Follow The Money suggest that Reynders allegedly purchased lottery tickets from the National Lottery over several years to launder money and see the winnings reappear in his bank account. Reynders is suspected of buying e-tickets—lottery entries valued between €1 and €100 that could be bought at various outlets and transferred to a National Lottery play account. He supposedly paid for these tickets at least partially in cash, but the winnings were deposited into his digital account with the National Lottery and then transferred to his checking account.
Both the National Lottery and the anti-money laundering unit CFI independently filed complaints with the prosecutor’s office about Didier Reynders. The National Lottery’s complaint claims Reynders laundered €200,000 through its products over five years. Meanwhile, the CFI investigated a decade’s worth of transactions and reportedly identified around €800,000 of suspicious funds in Reynders’ accounts.
According to nationale4.be, Jean-Claude Fontinoy, long considered Didier Reynders’ right-hand man, allegedly bought art and antiques almost daily from shops in Brussels’ Sablon district for years, mainly from Olivier Theunissen’s store. Until recently, Theunissen was a judge in corporate matters at the French-speaking Brussels Business Court and is currently the vice-chair of the Royal Chamber of Antique Dealers and Art Dealers of Belgium.
