BELGIUM (May 26, 2007) - May 21 marked the beginning of the country's most massive corporate crime trial ever. It is already receiving huge media attention. Jo Lernout and Pol Hauspie were once Belgium's most formidable magnates in international business, but they went on trial for defrauding investors of up to 225 million Euros. They initially made their fortune from their speech-recognition software and technology company, L&H, in 1990s, but suddenly went bankrupt in 2001 following a sudden burst of sales in their stock.

Meanwhile Patrick Ouart, the legal adviser to the newly-elected French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and former secretary general of the French energy group "Suez," could also face trial in a corporate espionage case in Belgium. Ouart is suspected of employing subrosa methodology to obtain confidential information about Belgian subsidiary Electrabel, according to Belgium's Capital weekly.

Nineteen others along with Lernout and Hauspie, have been accused of manipulating their stock price from 1997 to 2000, which coincided with the technology-based stock crash in the United States. What is worse, like so many others such as Scott Sullivan of Worldcom, Lernout and Hauspie are also accused of falsifying accounts to cover their losses. Lernout and Hauspie deny the charges. During this timeframe, its accounts seemed to show that sales to South Korea in particular had increased sharply. The result was that their investors lost millions of Euros.

Apparently, at the same time Ouart allegedly had a few Suez executives ordered French operatives to hack or otherwise gain access to Electrabel's computers and to tap its management's phones, gaining access to vital telephone conversations just prior to the takeover of the Belgian utility in 2005. It was never expected that anything would come of it and Ouart insisted to listeners of France Info Radio on May 17, that this case was purely political, resulting from his new appointment in Sarkozy's cabinet.

Both of these cases are seen as contributing to the volatile economic situation in Europe.

[SOURCE: New Europe Press]

CAVEAT: I have modified and condensed the original information to make it more understandable.

This case is only a synopsis and appears sketchy. We will follow this case and add information as it becomes available. It is hoped that it will be an exemplar for similar crimes. It will be interesting to compare and contrast other crimes of this genre.