A leaked arrest warrant from the Belgian investigation into the latest European Parliament alleged corruption scandal showed MEPs were suspected of having accepted tens of thousands of euros in kickbacks to support Chinese interests.
On March 25, Italian newspaper La Repubblica received a copy of the arrest warrant and shared it with other media.
It appeared that the Belgian prosecutor’s office built its case on the controversial open letter eight MEPs wrote in February 2021 to three EU Commissioners in opposition to the “technological racism” of Europeans opposing Chinese technological products.
This letter, favouring Huawei business interests and a fortiori the interest of the Chinese Communist regime, allegedly involved over €45,000 in bribes.
It was suspected that the author of the pro-Chinese letter received €15,000, while the so-signatories received €1,500.
The MEPs who signed the letter were Fulvio Martusciello, Giuseppe Milazzo, Herbert Dorfmann, Aldo Patriciello, Cristian-Silviu Busoi, Daniel Buda, Ciuhodaru Tudos and Giuseppe Ferrandino.
In their reactions to various media, all MEPs deny having received any compensation.
Lawyers involved in the case have said they deplore the leaks in the investigation, something that often occurs in Belgian justice.
According to La Repubblica, €46,000 in bribes were paid for this Feb 2021 letter to then-commissioners Breton, Dombrovskis & Vestager
Signed by 8 MEPs, it rails against commission's 5G toolbox, not naming Huawei, accusing it of "technological racism"https://t.co/GqjKU9d138 pic.twitter.com/JoZijm4UgS
— Finbarr Bermingham (@fbermingham) March 25, 2025
A key suspect is a Brussels-based European Union lobbyist, O, who used to work as an assistant for two Italian MEPs and later became a consultant to Huawei.
He was allegedly the ringleader of the suspected kickback scheme and Belgian police found a draft of the open letter on his computer.
In a reaction to Brussels Signal, his lawyer, Denis Bosquet, said he “had no comment to make”.
Other lawyers of named persons did not reply to questions from Brussels Signal at the time of publication.
According to the Belgian prosecutor, two Huawei supplier companies allegedly issued false invoices to pay another lobbyist, the Portuguese national Nuno Wahnon Martins, who was an adviser to Italian European People’s Party (EPP) MEP Fulvio Martusciello between 2015 and 2019.
Martins was also the secretary and assistant of another Italian MEP, Luciana Simeone, who has been under house arrest since March 20 on a European arrest warrant.
Money was allegedly distributed or laundered with the contribution of Simeone, who allegedly received €1,000 on February 21, 2021 from Martins, according to details revealed in the leaked warrant.
Simeone appeared before the Naples Court of Appeal on March 25 for a decision on her “surrender” to the Belgian authorities. The hearing was postponed until April 1. Her lawyer has denied any wrongdoing by his client and said Simeone was willing to answer all questions from the Belgian authorities.
During her interrogation on March 22, she reportedly denied any involvement and “explained that she had never dealt with “political or parliamentary activities, not even in drafting documents”, according to Italian media.
Regarding the €1,000 bank transfer, she stated she was “certain it was a reimbursement” for expenses she had forwarded to her Portuguese colleague. She then reportedly added: “I don’t know the other people mentioned and I was never introduced to O.”
Another four transfers, totalling €6,700, were allegedly made between February and June 2021 by Martins to Martusciello.
In total, Martins was suspected of having received close to €50,000 from the two Huawei supplier companies, which he distributed to multiple people.
On March 13, he was arrested in France and extradited to Belgium. His lawyer told investigative outlet Follow the Money he denied all accusations and would make a declaration to the investigative judge.
According to prosecution evidence quoted by La Repubblica, one suspect admitted to “often” crossing “the line” and paying for amendments.
Martusciello, who announced his withdrawal from the race for the presidency of the Campania region of southwest Italy, told La Repubblica that he “barely knew” O.
“O ? I may have seen him once in my life, if that. There was no familiarity at all — so much so that when he wrote, he addressed me formally,” the EPP MEP said.
“He [O] was a ‘serial inviter,’ constantly sending messages to invite people to events attended by French ministers or prominent members of Parliament.
“He was just doing his job. No one ever attended his events or accepted his invitations, and no one ever received anything,” Martusciello claimed.
Cristian Busoi, another apparent co-signatory of the open letter, sent an email to several media outlets stating he could not remember signing it and declaring he had adhered to the rules and principles of the European Parliament.
The Belgian Federal Prosecutor didn’t want to comment to Brussels Signal on the leak of the arrest warrant.
According to Follow the Money, the sums involved corresponded to a complaint from the NGO Transparency International, lodged with the European anti-fraud agency OLAF.
OLAF, though, reportedly did not investigate the matter, citing “insufficient suspicion”.
The outlet further claimed that the Martins arrest warrant could lead to additional suspects being targeted.
Belgian investigators reportedly considered that those above O knew about the bribes or even enabled them.
In a previous reaction, Huawei told Brussels Signal on March 19 it took all allegations seriously and would urgently communicate with the investigation to further understand the situation.
The company declared it had “a zero tolerance policy towards corruption or other wrongdoing” and was committed to “complying with all applicable laws and regulations at all times”.
The examining magistrate in the latest alleged foreign influence corruption probe at the European Parliament has charged five people. https://t.co/qNDWzDnAps
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) March 19, 2025
