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Caritas has confirmed it has not lodged a criminal complaint against Spuerkeess, nor has it initiated any civil proceedings, in connection with the €61 million fraud case.
The financial sector supervisory authority (CSSF) has imposed a €5 million fine on Spuerkeess for failing to implement adequate control mechanisms, an issue first raised during a 2018 inspection.
Spuerkeess insists the sanction is unrelated to the €61 million Caritas fraud uncovered last year, and it remains unclear whether the missing controls could have prevented the loss.
Caritas reaction
Nathalie Frisch, a member of Caritas' board of directors, said it is not up to Caritas to comment on the fine but stressed they still believe the bank should have acted differently. Caritas has not lodged a criminal complaint against Spuerkeess and has not initiated any civil proceedings.
The director of Spuerkeess recently announced plans to approach Caritas to find an out-of-court solution. However, no concrete discussions have yet taken place.
"I think the report has only just been released. And now, first of all, everyone needs to analyse the report in detail from their perspective. And then, to potentially hold talks, it’s of course not so easy right now, when people are taking turns going on holiday. That’s why I don’t expect anything to come out of it before mid to late autumn. Because until then, there probably won’t be many discussions taking place," Frisch explained.
BGL BNP Paribas has also allocated credit lines to Caritas, though no discussions on a potential agreement have been held.
Can members of the board be held personally liable?
Caritas’ financial director remains under judicial supervision. Frisch believes it is unlikely that board members could also be held accountable, noting that they are there to set overall direction rather than interfere in daily operations:
"In a non-profit organisation, an individual member of the board can only be held personally liable if they made a mistake while exercising their function. As of today, based on the information available to us, I don't see who on the board could have made such a mistake that would fall under those criteria."
The final decision will depend on the outcome of the investigation.
Before the fraud was uncovered in July 2024, an auditor had reportedly alerted the financial director to irregularities, but the board was not informed, according to Frisch. The auditor submitted an unqualified opinion to the board.
"I think the auditor's job is to carry out those checks. If the auditor hadn’t received all the answers from the financial director, then he shouldn’t have issued an unqualified opinion. So the question arises: why did the auditor give that opinion? And unfortunately, we never got those answers," Frisch said.
The future of Caritas’ real estate
Caritas still owns a substantial portfolio of real estate. While it is difficult to say exactly how many properties there are, Frisch noted that Caritas has partial ownership of many buildings, while others, such as the foundation's headquarters, are wholly owned.
Future decisions will depend on talks with the banks or the state:
"I think we are also in the process of finalising the accounts with the state, where we first have to see where we stand when the accounts are through, until they are validated, in order to know if and what further debt will arise. And then we have to decide which properties and how many of the properties, if any, have to be sold. I think we simply have to look at what is being put up for sale in the near future or, if there is an offer from somewhere, we can of course always consider it. But at the moment, there is nothing concrete that is close to being signed."
Erratum
An earlier version of this article stated that the CSSF had not imposed a €5 million fine on Spuerkeess. This was incorrect. The article has been amended to reflect that the fine was in fact imposed at the end of July, in line with the original Luxembourgish version.
