Two Moroccan banks and three of their directors, who were being prosecuted before the Brussels Criminal Court, have reached an extended settlement with the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office for 175,215,571 euros. The banks and directors were prosecuted for illegally carrying out banking, credit and insurance activities, but the payment of the settlement means that no conviction will be handed down.
The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office had already opened an investigation in 2018 into the Moroccan Banque Centrale Populaire (BCP) and its subsidiary, the French Banque Chaabi du Maroc (BCDM), as both were alleged to have engaged in the illegal conduct of banking and credit activities in Belgium. They are alleged to have attracted deposits, offered payment services and insurance activities, granted consumer and mortgage loans, and provided banking, investment and insurance services, all without the necessary authorisations from the Belgian authorities.
As part of that investigation, searches were carried out in October 2020 at the banks’ branches in Brussels, Sint-Jans-Molenbeek and Borgerhout. The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office prosecuted the two banks and three of their directors in the investigation, but there will be no conviction. According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the out-of-court settlement offers the advantage of a certain, immediate and definitive criminal response, but does not constitute an admission of guilt by the defendant.
“With this case and this outcome, the federal prosecutor and the specialist magistrates are demonstrating very clearly the importance they attach to tackling financial, economic and tax crime,” stated the federal prosecutor. “With the creation of a financial section, for which solid foundations already exist within the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, as is clearly evident from this case, the federal prosecutor will step up this fight even further.”
A Chaabi Bank branch © PHOTO Michael Nguyen/NurPhoto
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