Policy
And yet another “business”, one! With a damning question at stake: how can one man embezzle 15 million euros in just a few years?
By Martin Buxant
A Walloon industrial jewel, the Fabrique Nationale de Herstal is currently experiencing very complicated times. In summary, you might say that it’s guns all over the place, which is particular for a society where weapons are manufactured.
As a reminder, the FN Herstal is a world leader in the manufacture and sale of armaments. It is 100% owned by the Walloon government, which manages it via Wallonie Entreprendre, its financial arm. However, it emerged a few days ago that the mismanagement of the former management teams had allowed an executive of the company to embezzle not one or two million, but – hang in there – 15 million euros in space many years!
This framework is now on the run. For the record, it should be noted that he was also a players’ agent and arrived every day in a red Porsche at work. Admit that to go unnoticed, there is better. But even by not being discreet, he did not have to worry, as the management and audit procedures were so flawed.
All this obviously looks very bad for a company active in a very sensitive sector, where information is supposed to be padlocked and confidential. How do you explain, for example, to the American army to which you want to sell weapons that you are credible if your sales manager ran away with 15 million euros… and that he was a football player’s agent halfway through? -time ?
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The Walloon Region is now trying to clean all this up as quickly as possible and to put the dust under the rug. It’s messy, and the Flemish friends are watching us, especially the day following the declarations of Paul Magnette, who reminded them that we liked to enjoy life and take it easy. She is therefore trying to bring order and clean up the board of directors of the company which, of course, is politicized. The problem is that of the three directors she intends to liquidate for not having been able to prevent the fraud, one of them, MR Laurent Levaux, refuses to resign and wants to explain himself to the ministers Borsus and Di Rupo. The saga is not over and it will still make a lot of noise.
So many regrets, when the company’s image had clearly improved lately! Well taken over recently by a new CEO, Julien Compère, the FN Herstal, housed in the heart of the town of the same name, with the support of the local authorities and the mayor Daerden, had succeeded in giving a positive image to the company, in particular by supporting Ukrainian needs for the war once morest Russia. Almost everything now has to be started over. And as a misfortune never comes alone, we discover today that the same FN has lost (in addition to 15 million euros) 23 million in financial products. The audit and control structures have, it seems, not noted this mismanagement for years… Disastrous for the image of Wallonia.
Go explain to the Americans you want to sell weapons to that your sales manager got away with 15 million euros… and that he was a part-time football player’s agent.
Martin Buxant cash: “It’s messy and the Flemish friends are watching us. »
The FN Herstal: a dirty business that falls badly.
NO GUILTY ADMISSION
Quoted by La Libre Belgique, Laurent Levaux clearly affirmed his position: “My skills, my investment and – above all – my integrity have never been called into question and there is no question, today, of giving way to those who just want to turn heads. I am surprised that following putting so much energy into bringing Nethys back into ethical compliance and recovering, with its board of directors and its management, more than one and a half billion euros, I am asked today to step aside – which would be considered an admission of guilt. If the goal is to discourage industrial entrepreneurs in charge of large companies and who choose to invest in helping the Walloon Region, let’s continue like this. »
IF IT’S NOT A SMOKE, IT LOOKS LIKE IT
What to remember from Volodymir Zelensky’s visit to Belgium? A large number of observers did not fail to note that the Ukrainian leader began his European tour in London. We will not follow some who, on the antennas of LN24, spoke of the finger of honor to the European Union. Nevertheless: if it is not a snub, it looks like it. While the whole of the European Commission and the President of the Council Charles Michel traveled to kyiv once more last week, Zelensky first shook hands with the British Prime Minister.
It’s symbolic: it means that Ukraine is counting first on the United States, then on the British, and finally on the Europeans to ensure its survival. As in an attempt to catch up, Zelensky made the trip to Paris, and you only have to see President Macron’s slightly crestfallen expression when he poses for a photo alongside the Ukrainian president on the steps of the Élysée to understand that he only appreciates the sequence quite moderately.
Europe owes only to itself the fact that it comes last in the order of Ukrainian visits. Unable to reform itself, floundering in its own inter-institutional struggles over which of the Council, the Commission or Parliament should tighten Zelensky’s claw first, it ends up on the bottom step of the podium. She can’t complain.
That said, the visit was important because it personifies and embodies all the efforts that the Europeans have been making for a year to help the Ukrainians, and humanizes – here, I am forcing the point – the increases in gas bills and electricity. It also highlighted the expectation of the Ukrainians concerning the sending of fighter planes and the fact that Europe puts the brakes on the four irons, so as not to see the conflict take on a global dimension. MB
Europe can’t complain
Received at the Royal Palace in Brussels this Thursday, February 9, Volodymyr Zelensky offered King Philippe an extraordinary gift: a fragment of a Russian SU25 plane shot down in Ukraine. The Ukrainian pilots wrote: “Together we win”.