Belgian authorities have officially charged former European commissioner Didier Reynders with money laundering, a person familiar with the case confirmed to Follow the Money. He is not being held in custody.
The probe, which began with a December 2024 raid on Reynders’ home days after his EU justice mandate ended, focuses on the origins of close to €1 million, the news organization said.
Investigators suspect Reynders moved approximately €700,000 through his personal bank account between 2008 and 2018 and then began laundering roughly €200,000 by buying large quantities of lottery tickets and transferring any winnings back into the same account.
Reynders, 67, and his wife were questioned in December and again on October 16 by the investigative judge, Olivier Leroux, according to the report. The judge has now designated Reynders an official suspect, citing “serious indications of guilt,” while his wife has not been charged.
Investigators are also examining ING Belgium in connection with the case. The bank has said it cannot provide details “due to privacy and legal obligations,” adding it is strongly committed to combating financial crime, Follow the Money said.
It remains unclear how Reynders obtained the funds at issue, but according to people close to the case who spoke to the news outlet, he told Belgian investigators and ING in 2018 that the money could be sourced to the sales of artworks and antiques.
Belgian outlets Humo and Apache have reported that prosecutors, in a separate line of inquiry, are scrutinizing Reynders’ links to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and to an art foundation in Uccle. Belgium’s Financial Intelligence Unit wrote in 2014 that Deripaska used that foundation to launder money through art purchases, the news outlet said.
The FIU concluded that there were close ties between Deripaska and his intermediaries and “politically exposed people in Russia and Belgium.”
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