17 october 2020
01:30
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In a money laundering case involving the English entrepreneurial family, KBC is left alone in the dock. The family has reached a settlement with the public prosecutor, which has been confirmed by the court.
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The Ghent criminal court has given the green light in an interim judgment for a million-dollar deal between the public prosecutor’s office of East Flanders and the English business family. He runs the Lokeren window and door company Engels. In June last year, De Tijd announced that the top people of Engels, the forties Didier and Christophe Engels, together with their younger brother Cedric, their mother and their tax lawyer, were being prosecuted.
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In the case, KBC Bank and KBC Group are also prosecuted for helping to launder many millions of euros of black money belonging to the Engels family. But the three brothers Engels and their mother were allowed to reach an amicable settlement with the public prosecutor of East Flanders. The amount they paid is secret, but according to sources it would amount to more than 6 million euros.
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The court confirmed the settlement on Friday, leaving KBC, which does not want to conclude a settlement with the public prosecutor’s office, alone on the dock, together with the family’s tax lawyer who also did not settle. KBC is prosecuted as a co-perpetrator in the money laundering case.
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What is the case about? The Engels family began repatriating millions of euros of black money that they had kept hidden in Switzerland about 14 years ago. In our country, the money ended up in the family’s accounts at KBC.
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Before the dirty money arrived here, the family had tax regularized some of the money. The daughter of the company’s founder duly paid the taxes and fines on her share of the black capital. Her brother Hugo would not have done that and would have laundered a large part. The man died in 2007, after which the rest of his dirty money was transferred from Switzerland. The court discovered the half-hearted regularization and prosecuted the family along with its bank and tax lawyer. KBC is being prosecuted as a co-perpetrator in the money laundering case because, according to the public prosecutor’s office, alarm bells should have gone off at the bank when the money came back from Switzerland.
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KBC spokesman Stef Leunens declined to comment on Friday. “You understand that we do not wish to rule on pending lawsuits.” Last year, KBC responded to the file: ‘KBC is convinced that it has not committed any crime. At the time, the file was thoroughly assessed and handled by experts at KBC on the basis of the information available to KBC at that time. ‘
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Didier Engels did not want to respond to the interim decision in the case yesterday. Lawyer Guillaume Deknudt, who represents the other branch of the family, is going to discuss with his client whether they can appeal against the interlocutory judgment.
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