Belgian-Moroccan Couple Faces Justice for €100,000+ Pension Fraud Scheme

It all started with 20 anonymous letters that a particularly well-informed person sent to the Federal Pensions Service. This person claimed that a Belgian-Moroccan couple was receiving a pension while living in their house in Morocco. An investigation into the couple’s air travel will be opened in 2022. "The author of the letters then pointed out that the couple readily traveled to their country of origin by car. The investigation was therefore able to determine that the couple was abroad for the majority of the time," reports La Dernière Heure. The investigators discover that hundreds of thousands of euros have thus been improperly paid to the couple.

This couple - a man born in 1950 and a woman born in 1953 - arrived from Morocco thanks to their son. He married a Belgian woman of Moroccan origin. A kind of arranged marriage that allowed him to obtain Belgian nationality. Afterwards, he initiated the family reunification procedure. This is how his parents joined Belgium. After five years, they applied for and obtained naturalization. The couple applied for the GRAPA, the Guaranteed Income for the Elderly, and receive a pension every month.

After the discovery of the hundreds of thousands of euros improperly received, garnishments were carried out on their salaries. The couple has started repaying the misappropriated sums. The case is being brought before the Liège Correctional Court. Did the son help his parents fill out the documents? The person concerned answered in the affirmative. However, he denied knowing that it was fraud.

Absent from the previous hearing, the couple arrived during the closing arguments. The two Belgian-Moroccans refused to be assisted by an interpreter, even though they do not speak French. The Labor Prosecutor’s Office has requested a fine of 6,400 euros against each member of the couple. The Prosecutor’s Office has also requested a fine of 5,600 euros against their son, who is being prosecuted as a co-perpetrator. The verdict is expected next September.