The company court in Brussels has ordered BNP Paribas Fortis to pay EUR 434,641 to Filip Dierckx, the former number two of the bank.
–
The judgment of the company court is a rather dry and factual reading. In short, it means that Filip Dierckx is right with regard to the main question. The main question was whether the bank was right to accuse him of having violated the bank’s code of conduct in a file between the bank and SD Worx, of which he is chairman. BNP Paribas Fortis used this claim to not pay Dierckx his variable compensation overdue on the basis of an incriminating internal investigation report.
But that report falls short on all important points regarding the burden of proof. Dierckx has always claimed that the bank used this report to thwart his candidacy as chairman of Belfius Bank and Insurance.
Reparation
Because Dierckx cannot prove that the bank wanted to withdraw his candidacy as Belfius chairman from the air, among other things through a press leak, BNP Paribas Fortis is not ordered to publish a formal rehabilitation of Dierckx in the press. The bank therefore does not have to pay the opportunity cost of missing the Belfius presidency, which Dierckx had budgeted at 250,000 euros. However, all payments to which Dierckx was still entitled from his position at BNP Paribas Fortis and which the bank’s remuneration committee had wrongly refused to pay.
Dierckx himself says in a comment to The standard that he is very satisfied with the verdict. He receives 434,641 euros deposited. ‘I am happy with this reparation and also feel like the moral victor. I’m neither ethically nor legally wrong.’ Dierckx, who is chairman of SD Worx, says he wants to turn the page.
– .
