SFPIM corruption probe: multiple arrests in Belgium
The Brussels public prosecutor’s office has opened a corruption investigation into SFPIM, the country’s state-owned investment company, and several people have been deprived of their liberty, the prosecutor announced on 1 October 2026. The first phase of the case — covering alleged offences in 2023 and 2024 — has now been completed and will be brought before the French-speaking correctional court of Brussels in November.
According to VRT NWS, the investigation began earlier this year and centres on the alleged secret payment of fees through a non-profit organisation. The prosecutor says corruption in public office remains “a priority.”
What is SFPIM?
SFPIM — the Société Fédérale de Participations et d’Investissement, or Federale Participatie- en Investeringsmaatschappij — is a limited company of public utility whose capital is fully held by the Belgian State. It describes itself as the country’s sovereign wealth fund, playing a dual role as both an investment company co-investing in small and medium-sized enterprises and a holding company managing the federal government’s shareholdings. Its head office sits on Avenue Louise in Brussels.
Because SFPIM manages public money and holds stakes in strategic companies, allegations of corruption within it carry particular political weight.
The investigation and the alleged modus operandi
As HLN reported, the investigation is being handled by the economic and financial division of the Federal Judicial Police in Brussels. Investigators have carried out banking inquiries and house searches and conducted numerous interrogations. Several people were deprived of their liberty, though the prosecutor gave no details about their identity or the duration of that deprivation.
The alleged facts date from 2023 and 2024. According to the prosecutor, the then-chairman of the board of SFPIM International — a subsidiary of SFPIM — and his adviser arranged a method under which services were secretly compensated through a payment to a non-profit organisation. Those services concerned the preparation of a file relating to financing requests to SFPIM.
The prosecutor characterised the arrangement as “presumed hidden remuneration passing through a non-profit organisation,” as BruxellesToday reported.
Who is named?
The central figure is Jean-Claude Fontinoy, a Belgian engineer and manager who chaired the board of SFPIM International and previously served as chairman of the national railway operator NMBS/SNCB from 2013 to 2021. Fontinoy is a longtime confidant of former deputy prime minister and European Commissioner Didier Reynders (MR).
BruxellesToday, citing Le Soir, also names Thierry Denuit — former head of the association that runs the Train World railway museum — among those targeted by the prosecutor.
The prosecutor has not officially confirmed the identity of any of those detained. All suspects enjoy the presumption of innocence, and it will be for the court to determine whether the facts are proven.
A politically sensitive backdrop
The case lands in a wider context of scrutiny around SFPIM and around figures close to Reynders. In February 2026, Fontinoy and Brussels antique dealer Olivier Theunissen were formally placed under investigation in the separate money-laundering inquiry into Reynders, as VRT NWS reported. Reynders himself was officially placed under investigation for money-laundering in November 2025. That case is distinct from the SFPIM corruption matter, but it involves the same central figure.
SFPIM is also connected to a second, separate investigation: the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) searched premises at the European Commission and at SFPIM in February 2026 over possible irregularities in the 2024 sale of 23 Commission buildings to the Belgian State. As RTBF reported, the transaction concerned roughly 300,000 to 340,000 square metres of office space in Brussels’ European quarter, mostly around Schuman, with the portfolio estimated at around €880-900 million. SFPIM was meant to act as an intermediary, with the prospect of a possible resale to property developers. The Commission said it was confident the process respected the rules. That inquiry is led by the EPPO, not the Brussels prosecutor’s office, and is separate from the corruption case announced on 1 October.
What happens next
The first phase of the SFPIM dossier will be submitted to the French-speaking correctional court of Brussels in November 2026. It will then be for the court to assess whether the alleged facts are established.
Meanwhile, the prosecutor’s office says its investigation continues into “other phases of corruption within SFPIM.” In its statements, it stressed that tackling corruption in public office is a priority — a signal that further developments in the case are likely.
For Belgium, the coming months will test both the pace of the investigation and the institutions involved. The November court date marks the first public accounting of the case; how the proceedings unfold — and what the continuing probes uncover — will determine how far the ramifications reach.