04 september 2020
18:54
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The fact that the trial about the greatest financial drama of the past quarter century is celebrating its anniversary is detrimental to the sense of justice in our democracy. Outrage is in order.
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Twelve years after the collapse of the largest bank in the Low Countries, the criminal file against the former Fortis top is fizzling out. Barred. Market manipulation? Deception? Forgery? Almost 30,000 file pages later, the questions remain unanswered. Justice has not even got further than the council chamber.
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The damage is hardly measurable. First and foremost with the investors in the ‘good house father’ share of Fortis itself. Those investors were hundreds of thousands of Belgians and Dutch, families, employees of Fortis and companies. Ageas, Fortis’s successor, has reached a settlement with a large number of those investors worth 1.3 billion euros. For the portfolio of investors, a criminal conviction of the former Fortis top (Maurice Lippens, Jean-Paul Votron et les autres) would not have made much difference. But morally and symbolically it is.
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Second, the damage is permanent to our economy. Belgium has lost the decision-making center of its largest financial services group and thus lacks an important leverage for our economy. BNP Paribas has recruited Fortis for an apple and an egg. During the weekend that the bank had to be bailed – also as a result of the financial crisis from the US – the then Leterme government and her Dutch colleague had their backs to the wall. To prevent an implosion of our financial system, the bank was sold a few hours before the financial markets reopened.
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That brings us, thirdly, to the then leading politicians. Yves Leterme is one of the few who did take the damage in this case. He resigned as prime minister following the Fortis case. It must be bitter for him to see the Fortis top go free due to a prescription.
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Cui bono? Anyone who thought it better that the Fortis file was buried quietly.
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Yes, two people from the Fortis top, Jean-Paul Votron (ex-CEO) and Gilbert Mittler (ex-financial director), have been fined by the financial watchdog FSMA for careless communication. 200,000 euros. Peanuts compared to their Fortis salary and the step-up fee they earned. But there will be no trial.
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The rule of law suffers the greatest damage. The bankers have caused great social damage by cluttering the balance sheets with toxic products and with their blind appetite for takeovers. But, and that is swearing in the church at duped investors, reckless banking is not a crime according to the criminal code. It was not certain in advance that the Fortis top would have been found guilty in the criminal sense of the word. Because the Fortis case is now barred, we will not see those questions answered. Will the Fortis ‘toppers’ of the time never have to be accountable? The fact that the whole thing fizzles out is unworthy of a constitutional state. Cui bono? Anyone who thought it better that the Fortis file was buried quietly.
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Fortis’s prescription is anything but an isolated case. Major financial investigations are extremely rarely completed. That creates a sense of lawlessness.
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Moreover, Fortis’s prescription is anything but an isolated case. More than 10,000 criminal files of all kinds have been opened for more than ten years and have not been completed. Prescription threatens for a pack of those files. Major financial investigations are extremely rarely completed. That creates a feeling of lawlessness.
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In a country where the population has been exhausted by a sanitary crisis, an economic crisis and an endless political crisis, this is an extremely dangerous cocktail. Indignez-vous.
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