Genk (The Brussels Morning Newspaper): A couple from Genk is accused of financial fraud for using fake documents to misrepresent their wealth, tricking lenders and partners. They were arrested after issues arose with audit firms they purchased, revealing their claims were false. They were involved in fraud amounting to $240M.
The case involves a man and a woman from Genk suspected of committing financial fraud. They are accused of lying about their money situation by using fake documents. According to Amaury Verhoustrate, a spokesperson for the Brussels public prosecutor’s office, the suspects pretended to have a lot of money when they didn’t. They supposedly used these fake financial statements to trick lenders and business partners into thinking they were financially stable and could meet their obligations.
What led to the arrest of a Genk couple for alleged financial fraud?
The suspects were caught after buying audit firms to appear successful in business. But soon, those companies faced difficulties, and questions arose about their financial situation. It turned out that their claims of being financially okay were just lies. Now, the authorities are looking into how much fraud they did, like how many loans they got by tricking people and how it affected their business partners who believed their fake financial story. The problems with the audit firms showed a big gap between what the suspects claimed to have and what was true, leading to a deeper investigation.
The couple had been in the renewable energy business for a long time, trying to make wind turbines. They got money from the government to help them, but they never built any windmills. Verhoustrate says they started other companies and made people think those companies were valuable, even though they were worth nothing. They tricked a notary into thinking they had a lot of money by using fake bank transfers before starting these companies.
The investigation into the couple started in October 2023 after a report from the Financial Information Processing Unit (CFI) to the Limburg public prosecutor’s office, but later the Brussels public prosecutor’s office took over. In July, things got more serious, and in August, the police searched the couple’s rented home in an expensive area of Brussels called Bos Square. They were arrested after that. During the investigation, they also found a third person involved a company auditor who is accused of signing fake documents for the couple.
