In December, Belgian police recovered about €1.5 million in a sting that exposed an alleged bribery ring at the European Parliament.
That may be just the tip of the cash-filled iceberg.
According to an arrest warrant for Eva Kaili, a former Parliament vice president and the most senior EU lawmaker snared in the probe, “several million euros” were handed to the main suspects in the so-called Qatargate scandal.
The “considerable sums of money,” adds the warrant, obtained by POLITICO, were “paid secretly, in cash by Morocco and Qatar.”
The detail is just one of several eye-catching nuggets in the document, parts of which have previously been reported in Greek media. It also states that Kaili placed calls to the alleged ringleader, Pier Antonio Panzeri, as well as two other unnamed EU lawmakers, after the arrest of her partner, Francesco Giorgi, on the morning of December 9.
The document broadly describes a Brussels-based network working on behalf of Qatar’s labor minister, which has been Ali bin Samikh Al Marri since 2021. On the ground, the warrant alleges, Qatar ran its operations through Panzeri, a former MEP who was also arrested and confessed in a plea deal to bribing lawmakers.
“The Labor Minister,” the warrant reads, “seems to be the controller of Mr. Panzeri’s activities.”
Also involved: Kaili’s partner, Giorgi, a parliamentary assistant who formerly worked for Panzeri and was arrested in December. The warrant paints Giorgi as the go-between connecting Panzeri and Kaili.
“The investigation shows that orders were given by Mr. Panzeri to the husband of the accused,” it adds, referring to Kaili.
According to the warrant, Panzeri went to Giorgi when he wanted to direct Kaili’s behavior. It highlights one incident where Panzeri was frustrated about Kaili talking to a mysterious figure — “the Dutchwoman.”
“Panzeri criticizes the fact that Kaili spoke to the Dutchwoman,” the warrant reads, noting Panzeri thought she had “overstepped.” He conveyed his pique to Giorgi: “It would be a good idea to tell her to stop,” Panzeri told Giorgi, according to the document.
POLITICO has not been able to establish the identity of “the Dutchwoman.”
The warrant also states that Giorgi had been unofficially helping Kaili pay off a “second apartment” purchased under her name, citing the arrangement as evidence she was aware of her partner’s Qatargate income.
Giorgi and Kaili both deny any wrongdoing, as does Qatar. Kaili’s lawyer, Michalis Dimitrakopoulos, declined to confirm or deny the warrant’s authenticity. A lawyer for Giorgi declined to comment and the Qatari government did not reply to a request for comment.
Mission millions?
Kaili has been detained for more than two months on charges of corruption, money laundering and participation in a criminal organization — part of a sprawling probe into whether foreign countries, including Qatar and Morocco, illegally influenced the Parliament’s work
The Greek MEP was arrested on the accusation that she is “the primary organizer or co-organizer of public corruption, money laundering,” according to the warrant issued on December 9.
Shortly after the first arrests were made in the Qatargate probe, Belgian authorities announced they had recovered about €1.5 million in cash from the key suspects.
That includes €150,000 found at Kaili’s apartment and another €150,000 which was found in a suitcase her father was carrying at the Brussels Sofitel hotel. The arrest warrant also mentions some €700,000 found in Panzeri’s house.
But the total falls well short of the “several million” mentioned in the warrant, suggesting the suspects received additional payments that have yet to be recovered. Asked about the discrepancy, a spokesperson for the Belgian prosecutor said investigators had yet to assess the full extent of all payments involved in the Qatargate scandal.
According to the arrest warrant, Kaili said she had instructed her father, Alexandros Kailis, to take the money from her home in Brussels.
“The defendant acknowledges that she instructed her father to hide the money. She states that she was aware of her husband’s and Panzeri’s activities and that suitcases with money had passed through her apartment in the past,” the warrant reads.
Dimitrakopoulos, Kaili’s lawyer, later said there is no evidence to support the assertion that Kaili ordered her father to hide the money.
“Once she realized the existence of the money and felt that it was a toxic monster which she had to remove immediately from the apartment she shared with her partner, she asked her father to take the suitcase to a central hotel in Brussels, where the money would be picked up by its real owner,” he said in a statement late January.
The warrant had a different take: “There are serious indications of culpability.”
Nick Vinocur contributed reporting.
