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The head of Belgium’s oldest telecoms firm, state-run Belgacom, has been charged with corruption in a suspect real estate deal involving a well-known businesswoman, Belgacom said Thursday.
Didier Bellens, 56 and company CEO since 2003, was charged with corruption in June this year “and immediately informed the board of directors”, Belgacom said in a statement.
It said the charges were linked to the 2005 sale of a building owned by a Belgacom subsidiary to the firm Xelis Siva, and that the board, after an audit and internal inquiry, “concluded that Belgacom’s interests were totally safe”.
Investigators from the Mons proescutor’s office suspect Bellens of selling the property below market price to Xelis Siva, headed by the former head of Charleroi airport and the National Lottery, Edmee de Groeve.
She has been charged also, Belga news agency said.
Belgacom is 53 percent owned by the state.