Investigators and members of Belgium’s Federal Police force have raided the offices of Flemish broadcaster VRT on 22 June, searching for evidence of financial misconduct, VRT reports.
In November 2020, the Brussels police launched an investigation into financial wrongdoing committed by the broadcaster’s top officials. A month prior, the Flemish financial audit authorities wrote a scathing report about the finances of VRT. Notably, it states that VRT broke rules relating to tenders and the report noted “favouritism” among those contracted.
Six months later, a judge was appointed to the case, who said that there were “sufficient suspicions” to conduct a further investigation.
According to VRT, one of the key names brought up by the investigation was Peter Claes, the second highest official of the Flemish broadcaster. He had left the broadcaster after coming into conflict with then-CEO Paul Lembrechts. It is unclear if the new police raids are targeted at wrongdoing committed by Claes or Lembrechts.
In total, eight properties have been searched as part of the investigation, including VRT’s large office in Brussels. Property searches are reported to have targeted, among others, the home of Rudi De Kerpel, former representative of the Flemish Government to VRT. De Kerpel was named explicitly in the audit report as working in a conflict of interest.
The Flemish broadcaster states that Lembrechts had told VRT that his house had not been searched by police.
Units of the Belgian Central Service for Combating Corruption, as well as the Computer Crime Unit, entered the broadcaster's offices this morning, seizing documents. “It’s not exactly sure what they were looking for,” stated VRT.
