Ferrari has rejected the accusations and said that the investigation is politically motivated
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage’s partner Laure Ferrari has hit the headlines amid allegations of fraud at a Eurosceptic group that she ran when the pair were both working in Brussels.
Although there is no suggestion of wrongdoing on Farage’s part, the story will nonetheless cause him another headache as he tries to portray himself as a prime minister in-waiting.
The Times reports that ‘Laure Ferrari served as executive director of the Institute for Direct Democracy in Europe (IDDE), a think tank based in the Belgian capital, when auditors refused to sign off spending of hundreds of thousands of euros of public funds in 2016’.
It is understood that the European Commission anti-fraud unit spent years investigating the organisation, after Dutch press reported it had received funds from private donors who were awarded contracts in return, alongside allegations of financial irregularities.
European parliamentary authorities reported finding “several cases in which a company or individual had made a donation and that same company, or a company linked to the donor, was awarded contracts for sums exceeding the amount of the relevant donation”.
Ferrari has rejected the accusations and said that the investigation is politically motivated and “fake” accusations leaked by a hostile MEP.
On November 5, a specialist financial crime court in Brussels, Chamber 69 of the tribunal de première instance, is expected to deliver its verdict.
Ferrari also made the headlines recently after Farage was forced to insist he had no “financial stake” in a £885,000 house in Clacton brought by her in cash, amid claims he structured the purchase in order to avoid paying additional tax.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
Left Foot Forward doesn’t have the backing of big business or billionaires. We rely on the kind and generous support of ordinary people like you.
You can support hard-hitting journalism that holds the right to account, provides a forum for debate among progressives, and covers the stories the rest of the media ignore. Donate today.
