French and Belgian investigators questioned Prince Henri De Croÿ in late April over his role in setting up offshore accounts in Dubai for individuals to evade tax.
A royal status with the princes and princesses of Belgium, De Croÿ is at the heart of the “Dubai Papers” scandal which exposed how his company – the Helin Group – was funnelling funds from Europe into the Emirates.
French newspaper L’Obs investigate De Croÿ and found that he had been the mastermind behind a tax evasion network between 2002 and 2018. The Belgian royal had already been found guilty of money laundering in another case in 2013.
Belgian Prince Henri De Croÿ. Credit: Belga
Belgium’s Federal Public Prosecutor's Office subsequently opened its own judicial investigation into the Helin group, with various local public prosecutors charged with investigating the organisation's 61 clients.
For its investigation, the federal public prosecutor was able to rely on the leaked documents, which it received through the National Financial Prosecutor's Office in France.
Emmanuel Marsigny, De Croÿ's lawyer, refused to comment on the interrogation when asked by the Belga News Agency.
