The former Walloon minister Serge Kubla was convicted on Thursday morning by the Brussels Criminal Court for a case of bribery of political officials and agents of Congolese companies and for money laundering.

Wallon Serge Kubla is sentenced to a two-year suspended prison sentence, a criminal fine of 60,000 euros and a confiscation of 600,000 euros. In the case of Duferco and two of its directors, the court declared certain prejudices to be prescribed and acquitted the others. In reality, Serge is accused of having participated in corruption, between 2010 and 2012, when he carried out consulting missions for the steel company Duferco. According to the court, he was present when tens of thousands of dollars were handed over to a manager of the Société Nationale de Lotterie (Sonal), a Congolese gaming company.

According to the court, this cash transfer took place in a restaurant near Place Flagey in Ixelles. In the words, it was a “departure right of entry.” The court considered that it was not certain that the delivery by Kubla of an envelope containing a sum of 20,000 euros to the wife of the then Congolese Prime Minister, Adolphe Muzito, in a hotel in Brussels, was corruption. Instead, he found Serge Kubla guilty of money laundering, after concluding that some money paid into his account in Switzerland had an illicit origin.