RTL Today - 'People have been conned and used': Person turns themselves in to police in Caritas embezzlement investigation

On Friday, news broke that the Caritas Foundation has been the victim of a significant internal embezzlement involving a staggering €60 million that never reached its intended purposes.

The Director General of the Caritas Foundation, Marc Crochet, has filed a criminal complaint for misappropriation of funds, according to a statement issued by the Public Prosecutor’s Office on Friday evening. An investigation is underway, and only a few details have emerged so far.

On Monday evening, the public prosecutor's office announced a person had now turned themselves in to the judiciary police as a result of the investigation into the case. The individual was consequently arrested by order of the investigating judge.

The investigation remains ongoing in order to clarify how 61 million euros were transferred from Caritas to a Spanish bank without reaching the charity's cooperative partners.

Staff were informed of the scandal on Monday morning, as general director Marc Crochet said salaries would be guaranteed thanks to the association's reserves. Caritas president Marie-Josée Jacobs told RTL she was shocked by the whole thing on Monday afternoon.

"Conned and used"

Caritas' General Director, Marc Crochet, spoke with RTL on Monday morning and stated that he is completely dumbfounded by the revelations and feels utterly "conned."

The person responsible had access to the foundation's bank accounts, allowing them to take out large loans in the foundation's name, likely to take the money for themselves. As a result, large sums are owed to banks, reportedly upwards of €60 million, and the person even attempted to open additional credit lines.

The question remains how the alleged perpetrator was able to obtain the €61 million as Caritas never had that money in the account, explains Marc Crochet. "When the whole thing started, Caritas had just 28 million euros in the account. And that is about half of the money we need in the year to function. And the 28 million euros that were there were not our money either. That was about 25 million that belonged to the Luxembourg state and other donors."

Crochet explains that 33 million of the 61 million that are owed are solely in credit and loans that were taken out in the foundation's name by the perpetrator.

Crochet himself discovered that something was wrong and he filed a complaint. Crochet says that he knows which employee is probably behind it. "The only thing I knew for sure was that someone was about to rob us. And I could actually just connect the dots and say: I know that person."

Caritas has already engaged a consulting firm to conduct an internal investigation to understand how the fraud took place. One of the main conclusions here is that the foundation needs to be restructured, according to Marc Crochet. He assured, however, that Caritas employees' salaries are safe.

The main challenge for the foundation will be to regain the public's trust. Caritas receives around €3 million in donations each year, which are then quickly distributed to places where they are needed most.

"Our organization is trustworthy. What happened here, this is a big crime, and this happened to us. We are the victims here, you can say maybe you were naive or someone believed something to someone else. Yes, then it's the mistake you made. That's just trusting a person you've worked with for a long time. That's a breach of trust in Luxembourg, and that's what shall pass." Marc Crochet emphasised that procedures are all being redone.

As with any criminal case, any accused parties are innocent until proven guilty.