The 12,000 members of the interest group Arcoclaim are demanding back the money they put in Arco. Until now, the former ACW has remained unaffected.
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Not only Beweging.net is summoned, but also the chairman of the Christian workers’ movement and the secretary general. This has to do with the legal structure of the movement. A bailiff served the summons this morning at the request of Arcoclaim, which has more than 12,000 members who lost money to Arco.
The summons is striking because Beweging.net has so far remained out of harm’s way in the Arco case. This while the bank that formed the basis of the issuance of cooperative shares, initially BAC (ob), which was merged via Artesia into Dexia from which Belfius split off, arose from the Christian workers’ movement.
‘Safe and risk-free’
In the Arco case, Arcoclaim had already sued the Belfius bank and the Belgian state. Belfius Bank, in turn, had summoned the Arco companies in that case, because the bank believed that what it was accused of actually belonged to the Arco companies. Up to now Beweging.net itself has not been involved in any proceedings. According to Arcoclaim, Beweging.net nevertheless played a central role in the misleading commercialization of the Arco shares to its supporters. ‘In addition, those shares were repeatedly advertised in publicity as’ safe and risk-free’. Beweging.net used the magazine, among other things Vision, argues Arcoclaim.
When things went wrong with their investment, the cooperators were told that they were covered or would be compensated. ‘People feel very comfortable, they were kept sweet with promises for years, but in the meantime they are still out in the cold’, says Geert Lenssens, the lawyer who assists Arcoclaim in his legal proceedings.
According to the chairman of Arcoclaim, Ab Flipse, the summons of the movement has ‘a historical character’. The writ of summons from Beweging.net is the missing link in current Arco proceedings. Beweging.net has ever been summoned in any of those proceedings, while it clearly played a decisive role in the drama. We therefore, together with our members, consider it self-evident that Beweging.net will become a party to the ongoing proceedings. This allows our members, who are at the same time the basis of Beweging.net, to enter into an open discussion with one of the main liabilities and claim damages. Even so, Beweging.net can finally make its voice heard in the debate and will now have to answer to the public. ‘
400 million out?
The consultancy firm Deminor, which litigates on behalf of 2,000 cooperants in the Arco case, denounced in 2014 that Beweging.net got away well with the fall of Arco. Deminor then calculated that Beweging.net had obtained just under 400 million from the Arco Group or 2.2 times more than it ever invested in it. The Beweging.net lawyer then denied those figures.
In 2014 Deminor issued a summons to a series of parties such as Belfius, the Arco companies, former Arco top woman Francine Swiggers and the Belgian state.
That process will start on June 9 before the corporate court in Brussels. Arcoclaim will then also intervene. Arcoclaim itself also has proceedings pending before the court of first instance. It is in that court that Beweging.net has now also been summoned. The Belfius bank, among others, is requesting the merger of both procedures. Arcoclaim supports this idea, but Deminor, who fears delay, does not. That promises to be another debate.
Arcoclaim itself arose from two interest groups: Money back from Arco and Arcoparia’s. The initiators, Eddie Schild and Michel van Caster, then sought support for their approach from the Dutchman Ab Flipse, who advises them on Arcoclaim.
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