A vast police operation targeting a criminal organization in financial matters in five districts, mainly in Charleroi (Courcelles region) but also Namur (Basse-Sambre), Mons (Petit-Enghien), Brussels and Walloon Brabant (Tubize), involving 21 companies, was conducted on Tuesday. During this operation, no less than 24 searches and 15 arrests were carried out.
The organization put in place by this criminal network consisted of the creation or takeover of companies at the head of which they then placed men or women of straw. This organization was facilitated by the complicity of a manager of two Business Centers, both during takeovers and creations of companies and for the domiciliation of head offices, also fictitious.
These companies resorted to false invoicing for an amount estimated at a total of 5.3 million euros. Twenty other companies would have benefited from this false invoicing to increase their charges and finance their undeclared labor (social fraud).
Most of the companies in the organization having gone bankrupt, they generated a large and systematic institutional liability. The organization also probably benefited from “Covid” indemnities of an amount yet to be specified.
The benefit of this well-organized criminal structure lies, among other things, in real estate. This operation made it possible to discover the presence of two firearms and resulted in the seizure of 13 vehicles, some of which were luxury, luxury watches and gold jewelry, with a cash sum of nearly 24,000 euros. , a Bitcoin account, the freezing of numerous bank accounts, the sealing of two Business Centers and the deprivation of liberty of 15 people, including 6 confirmed by arrest warrant and 7 released under conditions.
