THE STRANGE LINKS OF DIDIER MATRAY, THE LAWYER OF DIDIER REYNDERS

Nicolas Ullens de Schooten, former agent of the State Security, recently expressed that appointing Didier Reynders as European Commissioner for Justice was like putting Al Capone in charge of the police in Chicago. Didn’t he exaggerate? In view of what we discover during our investigation, it seems not.

We could do an investigative exercise like we did in  » Politicians and their page: how to get the money without getting caught « . Our investigation starts with a small visit on the Cumuleo website⁽¹⁾, looking for Didier Matray’s different mandates. It is discovered that the latter, Didier Reynders’ lawyer, held eleven mandates in 2017, three of which were paid. Strange?

We learn, among other things, that Didier Reynders, who has not been Minister of Finance for 8 years, has a lawyer who has two paid mandates at the National Bank, where he is Chairman of the Remuneration and Nomination Committee and a member of the Council of Regency⁽²⁾. The Council of Regency is an important body that  » exchanges views on general issues relating to the National Bank, monetary policy and the economic situation of the country and the European Community « ⁽³⁾. The Board of Directors has considerable power within the National Bank: in particular, it sets the accounting rules, approves the expenditure budget and the annual accounts, and makes the final decision on the distribution of profits proposed by the Management Committee. Didier Matray became a member of the Council of Regency on March 29, 2005.

Here’s where it gets juicy: the Board of Regents is made up of the governor, the directors and ten regents. The Regents are elected by the General Assembly for a renewable term of three years: two Regents are chosen on the proposal of the most representative organizations of the workers; three Regents are chosen on the proposal of the most representative organizations of industry and commerce, agriculture and the middle classes. And the last five are chosen  » on the proposal of the Minister of Finance « :

 » The Ordinary Shareholders’ Meeting of March 29, 2005 renewed the mandate of Mr. Jacques Forest. It elected as Regents Messrs. Rudi Thomaes, Christian Van Thillo, André Mordant and Didier Matray. « Footnote 5 to Didier Matray’s name reads:  » on the proposal of the Minister of Finance « ⁽⁴⁾…

It is also not without interest to see that bosses of press groups (Persgroep: Het Laatste Nieuws, De Morgen, VTM, etc.), such as Christian Van Thillo, are regents at the National Bank, or people such as Jacques Forest at the time, CEO of the insurance company P&V, whose board of directors includes Jean-Paul Phillipot, general manager of the RTBF, who also sits on the audit committee of P&V Insurance, the remuneration committee, the risk committee and the nomination committee.

This story of political appointment is reminiscent of the recent one of Olivier Chastel’s half-brother, who was parachuted in as head of an intermunicipal health organization in the Charleroi region. The reader will have understood, after the Samu social affair, Kazakhgate, the removal of the federal police, and recently Publifin/Nethys, that these scandals are not the expression of dysfunctions in a system, but on the contrary, recurrent elements of proof that shed light on its functioning. The scoop, at this level, is only the status of an existing fact that has just been publicly revealed. Given the dilapidated state of the media in Western nations, particularly in Belgium, many cases « do not exist » for the sole reason that they are not covered by the media.

But let’s get back to our carrion. Mr. Matray has a third mandate at the National Bank of Belgium, as a member of the Special Fund Commission whose mission is « to examine the allocation of the Special Fund for the Bank’s patronage « . To the question: could these three functions of the politician’s lawyer have had an impact on the unfreezing of the Libyan funds, the Kazakhgate or on other cases in which Didier Reynders is involved, one is tempted to answer yes, considering the competences of the National Bank of Belgium in matters of tax fraud and terrorism:  » the NBB is in particular responsible for monitoring the compliance of financial institutions with their European and national obligations relating to the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT), as well as their obligations in terms of asset freezing and fund transfers « ⁽⁵⁾.

When one remembers the affair of the Belgian public money that had been invested in an offshore structure, filed in the archives of « old scandals », in the oblivion of memory to avoid that the average person, the turkey of the farce, understands that these affairs are part of a system and that this system is directed by a political-financial mafia, when one remembers this affair and our present revelations, synaptic connections do not fail to be made: the Belgian Investment Company (BMI), 64% owned by the Belgian state, appears in the « Paradise papers », via a company « Infra Asia Development », based in Vietnam and registered in the British Virgin Islands, a notorious tax haven. And who do we find as president of the BMI — and of the board of directors of the SNCB: Jean-Claude Fontinoy, « the man⁽⁶⁾ of Reynders ».

As a managing director? Koen Van Loo, former head of Reynders’ cabinet. The second shareholder of « Infra Asia Development » is none other than Ackermans & van Haaren, a company whose owner is Luc Bertrand, and his daughter, Alexia Bertrand, also an AvH director, chief of staff of… Didier Reynders. From 2006 to 2016, Hans D’Hondt was a member of the Board of Directors of BMI-SBI, but he is also Chairman of the Management Committee of the Federal Public Service Finance and representative of the Minister of Finance to the National Bank, whose operations he should oversee⁽⁷⁾. When we know that he was supposed to fight against tax fraud at the Ministry of Finance, we can imagine that recruiting in Luxembourg would be more efficient.

THE « BARON » MATRAY

We have already shown how noble titles allow friends to protect each other⁽⁸⁾. Thus,  » On the proposal of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Didier Reynders, the King has granted the following noble favors by Royal Decrees of July 13, 2012 « The company was founded by Didier Matray, at the same time as Jef Colruyt, from one of the richest families in Belgium (€4,213,066,000⁽⁹⁾) or Olivier de Schutter⁽¹⁰⁾… The new Baron Matray will climb the ladder relatively quickly, since he will become in September 2017  » President of the Commission of opinion on the concessions of noble favors and on the granting of honorary distinctions of high rank « , office in charge with the Council of nobility, of  » togive advice to the Minister of Foreign Affairs who is called upon to report to the King « .

If you follow closely the publications of KairosYou will recall that Didier Matray’s most prestigious contact, Didier Reynders, thanked his friends, notably Olivier Theunissen, an antique dealer and art expert, whom he will make a Knight of the Order of the Crown, and Ernest de Laminne de Bex, president of the International Diplomatic Consular Circle (CIDIC), for whom he will propose to the King to give the title of baron, thehesame day that George Forrest will be awarded the title of Grand Officer of the Order of the Crown⁽¹¹⁾. To be ennobled is to become part of a large family and, like the mafia clans, to respect the law of silence. We have been told that some witnesses who are willing to file a complaint with the federal police about elements related to the corruption of public contracts that Mr. Fontinoy, and thus indirectly Didier Reynders, managed, refuse to come forward, especially because of their status as noblemen.

The analysis of Matray’s mandates on Cumuleo reveals another extraordinary element: Didier Matray is President of the Scientific Council and Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Center for the Study and Practice of National and International Arbitration (CEPANI). However, on this board of directors, he rubs shoulders with the lawyer of two members of the Kazakh trio, Jean-François Tossens, who represents the interests of Patokh Chodiev and Alexandre Machkevitch. It must be a matter of chance. Didier Reynders also intervenes at CEPANI, for example during its general assembly on June 6, 2019, where he gave a presentation on  » Arbitration and mediation: changing perspectives « . À l’Association of Liégeois Torking in Brussels (ALTB), Didier Reynders gives conferences, and also meets his companion Didier Matray, who is one of its founders. Same people, same perspectives.

We continue our investigation and arrive at ICC Belgium to discover that Baron Matray is an administrator of the ASBL, as is Jean-François Tossens. Finally, persevering, we discover a third ASBL named Francarbi, to find the two companions. Francarbi, it is a  » national arbitration association  » which, on December 2, 2016, invited for a colloquium entitled  » Regards croisés sur le principe du contradictoire « , Didier Reynders.

JEAN-FRANÇOIS TOSSENS AT THE HEART OF KAZAKHGATE

Who is Jean-François Tossens, what was his role? The latter is in any case at the heart of Kazakhgate. We wrote in April 2018,  » Scandal-collecting Nicolas Sarkozy, who was taken into custody on March 20, 2018, for the hidden financing of his 2007 presidential campaign, is using his connections to speed up the Belgian legislative process and allow the Kazakh trio to benefit from an « extended criminal transaction. » The pressure spreads and is exerted on relays, setting in motion the procedures of facilitation with the objective of advancing the process and leading to the release: Damien Loras, Central Asia advisor to Sarkozy, known as the « treating officer » of Patokh Chodiev⁽¹²⁾Jean-François Étienne des Rosaies is asked to find him an international business lawyer. Catherine Degoul will be chosen. Loras and des Rosaies put together a technical (judicial and financial) and political team, between France and Belgium. In addition to Damien Loras, the pilot of the case, des Rosaies, the intermediary, Catherine Degoul, the lawyer in charge of the judicial aspect, the vice-president of the Belgian Senate at the time, Armand de Decker, and the law firm Toosens⁽¹³⁾ ». Mr. Degoul testified at the time that Jean-François Étienne des Rosaies « had said that for the Tossens and Stibbe firms (editor’s note: the two Brussels firms that defended Chodiev), at least 2 million in fees would be required and then the same for De Decker.⁽¹⁴⁾

Jean-François Tossens met several times with Catherine Degoul, the lawyer of the Kazakh trio, and participated in the application of the penal transaction law for the benefit of the Kazakh trio. It is Patrick De Wolf who, as general counsel, will « propose » to the Kazakh trio and the four other co-accused,  » the extinction of all public proceedings in Belgium — fifteen years of judicial investigation erased at a stroke — in exchange for the payment of a fine (3,492,500 million euros, almost the legal maximum), the reimbursement of legal costs (251,756.72 euros) and the abandonment by equivalent of the value of five buildings bought with funds of probably criminal origin (18.45 million euros)⁽¹⁵⁾ « . For the poor, prison. For the rich, the fine, paid with the money they have stolen from the poor. Time passes, the iniquitous rules remain.

Patrick De Wolf will apply this penal transaction law despite the instructions of the public prosecutor:  » At present, it is not advisable to propose penal settlements until such time as the Restorative Justice Act comes into force. If, however, in very exceptional circumstances, you consider it necessary to propose such a settlement, you should send me a detailed report justifying these particular circumstances and seek my prior agreement. » So we see that this is very clear. We do not want you to do it. We can’t forbid you to do it because the law is in force, but if you do it, I have to agree and, above all, we need a written and motivated report to know why you are in such a hurry to sign this kind of transaction.⁽¹⁶⁾ « . Jean-François Tossens would also be one of those who participated in writing the indictment. Catherine Degoul, interviewed by a Belgian police officer and magistrate in Paris, in the presence of French investigating judges,  » explained, during this hearing, that it was Mr. Chodiev’s legal team, of which she is the director, along with her colleagues Mr. Libotte and Mr. Tossens, who in fact drafted the indictment for Mr. De Wolf⁽¹⁷⁾ ». The Tossens firm would have received a 7‑figure sum.

But there’s more to it than that. The French investigating judge Aude Buresi, put Patokh Chodiev under investigation for  » tax fraud laundering, in a case of envelopes of €800,000 and €5 million given respectively in Paris and at the Hyatt Hotel in Zurich to the French lawyer Catherine Degoul and her suitcase carrier Eric Lambert « . Part of this money would have been paid to Brussels law firms, including that of Jean-François Tossens. Note that it is rather « amusing » that Patokh Chodiev is under investigation for the same facts in France while the justice system has closed its investigation in Belgium. It is hard to believe that it is not the complicit relays at the political, judicial and security levels that have made this possible in Belgium.

It would be very interesting to hear Jean-François Tossens, close to Catherine Degoul and lawyer of two members of the Kazakh trio, and Didier Matray, lawyer of Didier Reynders, on all this. Wouldn’t they have seen envelopes passing by? It goes without saying that the proximity of the two lawyers in three ASBLs allows them to have an extremely discreet discussion channel that escapes any eavesdropping.

One last point about Didier Matray: he is a director and chairman of the board of the Belgian-Luxembourg-German Chamber of Commerce, where he works to bring these three countries together. Needless to say, this situation must have been beneficial to Didier Reynders’ candidacy as European Commissioner, of which Ursula von der Leyen, a German, will become president in November 2019…

The promiscuity between these two lawyers, the links with different institutions and ASBLs, and the systematic attachment to Didier Reynders, constitutes a small bomb for this hyper-protected mafia. It is up to us to explode it, as well as this irreducible and structural greed that ruins the future of humanity. Without this, in particular, do not expect any real change.

Eric Arthur Parme