Kortrijk (The Brussels Morning Newspaper): Lieven Lybeer, a former mayor of Kortrijk, was acquitted of fraud charges related to an expense allowance as a director of a social housing company due to insufficient evidence.
Lieven Lybeer is a long-time member of the CD&V party and had a notable political career in Kortrijk. He started as an alderman in 1999. His profile rose when the mayor, Stefan De Clerck, became the Belgian Minister of Justice in 2008. This opened the door for Lybeer to become the acting mayor of Kortrijk until De Clerck came back to his job as mayor. In 2013, after finishing his time as acting mayor, Lybeer became a director at the Tieltse Bowmaatschappi, which is a social housing company. He got a salary along with an extra 200 euros each month for expenses. However, this extra payment was later questioned. A supervisor from the Flemish government looked into it and decided that the expense allowance was not justified, so it was canceled.
Did audit reveal fraud in Kortrik’s Tieltse Bouwmaatschappi?
It has been said that the possible fraud with these allowances was discovered in 2019 during an audit. This audit raised concerns about how money was managed in the Tieltse Bouwmaatschappij. It pointed out some irregularities, which led to a deeper investigation into the company’s finances and the allowances given to its directors, including Lybeer.
Despite the earlier decision, the audit found that Lybeer had been getting 300 euros a month for expenses since March 2015, not 200 euros. This information was missing from the report sent to the supervisor, and it was discovered that the part about expenses had been removed. Lybeer was suspected of changing the report himself. He was initially given a 6-month suspended jail sentence for fraud and forgery, but when he appealed, the court cleared him because there was doubt about the evidence. They said they couldn’t trust the chairman’s version since the email with the changed report was gone, making it impossible to check what was actually sent to the supervisor.
The Court of Appeal cleared Lybeer of all charges. They stated that there wasn’t enough evidence to prove that he had committed forgery, which means that fraud couldn’t be established either. Essentially, without clear proof of forgery, the court decided that the accusations of fraud were also unfounded. This ruling indicates that the evidence presented was not strong enough to support the claims against him.
