vault backup: 2026-09-22 23:22:19

10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Count Maurice Auguste Lippens.md

@@ -5,27 +5,36 @@ tags:
   - Belgium
   - Dutroux
   - Elite
-  - Bilderberg
-summary: "Count Maurice Auguste Lippens is a Belgian banker who co-ran Societe Generale in the 1980s and attended Bilderberg meetings; he and his brother Count Leopold Lippens were named in the Marc Dutroux X-Dossier investigation by multiple witnesses."
-created: 2026-05-14
-updated: 2026-05-14
+  - Fortis
+summary: "Fortis chairman who in July 2008 privately told its chief executive he had never been so afraid for the bank, then publicly urged investors to buy; named by the X-Dossier witness X1."
 born: 1943-05-09
 location: "Knokke, Belgium"
+relations:
+  - type: head_of
+    with: "[[Fortis]]"
+    role: "chairman"
+    end: 2008
+    fn: 1
+  - type: relative_of
+    with: "[[Count Leopold Lippens]]"
+    role: "brother"
+    fn: 2
+created: 2026-05-15
+updated: 2026-09-22
 ---
-Maurice Robert Josse Marie Ghislain, Count Lippens, was born on May 9, 1943, in Knokke, Belgium. He is the younger brother of [[Count Leopold Lippens]], who served as mayor of Knokke-Heist for over four decades. Maurice Lippens became a prominent figure in Belgian high finance, co-directing [[Societe Generale]] through much of the 1980s and attending [[Bilderberg]] meetings as a regular participant..[^1]
+
+Maurice Lippens is the brother of [[Count Leopold Lippens]], mayor of [[Knokke-Heist]] from 1979 to 2021, and was chairman of the bank [[Fortis]].[^1][^2]
+
+### Fortis
+
+Fortis had just completed the takeover of the Dutch ABN Amro group when, on July 26, 2008, in an email to the chief executive, Jean-Paul Votron, later obtained by the financial daily *De Tijd,* Lippens wrote that he had "major questions about the future" and: "You should know that I've never been so afraid for the future of Fortis." The next day he told VRT's program *Terzake* that difficult circumstances were coming in the markets and the economy, called the ABN Amro takeover the acquisition of "a beautiful gem," and said: "I would say, ladies and gentlemen, invest as fast as you can." Within months the value of Fortis shares collapsed, and groups of private investors went to court.[^3] In September 2009 Lippens admitted to "a whole series of errors, notably in communication," none of them, he said, a fault, and criticized the Belgian government for having said "too bad for the shareholder" and the Dutch authorities for having "betrayed their word"; the former prime minister [[Yves Leterme]] replied that "everyone knows clearly who led the company into its problems."[^1]
 
 ### X-Dossier Allegations
 
-Maurice Lippens and his brother Leopold were named by multiple victim-witnesses in the [[X-Dossier]], the compilation of testimonies assembled during the investigation into [[Marc Dutroux]] by magistrate [[Jean-Marc Connerotte]].
-
-A witness identified as X2 described child abuse parties organized at Maurice Lippens's villa in [[Knokke-Heist|the Knokke area]], as well as events involving underage girls at the Cromwell hotel in Knokke. Among those named by X2 as present at these events were [[Count Leopold Lippens|Leopold Lippens]], Belgian politician [[Etienne Davignon]], [[Karel Van Miert]] (later European Commissioner), and Paul Van Gheluwe.[^2]
-
-The primary X-Dossier witness, X1 ([[Regina Louf]]), described both Lippens brothers as participants in the same elite networks of organized abuse that she identified as extending to hunts at country estates and involving other named public figures including [[Paul Vanden Boeynants]] and [[Baron Benoit de Bonvoisin]].[^3]
-
-Belgian authorities did not bring charges against Maurice Lippens on the basis of the X-Dossier testimonies. The investigating team was replaced in 1997 following the controversial removal of magistrate Connerotte. The X-Dossier summary was subsequently leaked to journalists and released through WikiLeaks in 2009. Lippens denied the allegations.[^2]
+In the [[X-Dossier]] investigation under Judge [[Jean-Marc Connerotte]], the witness X1, [[Regina Louf]], named Maurice and Leopold Lippens, with [[Paul Vanden Boeynants]] and [[Baron Benoit de Bonvoisin]], among her most violent abusers. The witness X2 described parties with underage girls in villas in Knokke and at the Hotel Cromwell attended by [[Etienne Davignon]], Leopold Lippens and others. Maurice Lippens was never charged.[^2]
 
 ### Footnotes
 
-[^1]: "Maurice Lippens (businessman)," Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Lippens_(businessman)
-[^2]: "Belgian X-Dossiers of the Dutroux Affair: the Accused," Institute for the Study of Globalization and Covert Politics, 2007. https://www.isgp-studies.com/belgian-x-dossiers-of-the-marc-dutroux-affair-the-accused
-[^3]: "Dutroux case and X-Dossier victim-witnesses," crimesandconsequences.com, updated 2021. https://crimesandconsequences.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/dutroux-case-and-x-dossier-victim-witnesses.pdf
+[^1]: "Maurice Lippens rompt le silence." *VRT NWS,* September 19, 2009, archived October 16, 2019; translated from the French. https://web.archive.org/web/20191016073837/https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/fr/2009/09/19/maurice_lippens_romptlesilence-1-600628/
+[^2]: Bulté, Annemie, Douglas De Coninck, and Marie-Jeanne Van Heeswyck. *De X-dossiers.* Epo, 1999, and the leaked summary of the X-file investigation published by WikiLeaks in 2009; neither examined directly. The witness attributions were located through the Institute for the Study of Globalization and Covert Politics compilation "Belgian X-Dossiers of the Dutroux Affair: the Accused," used as a finding aid only.
+[^3]: "Did Maurice Lippens deceive small investors?" *VRT NWS,* September 21, 2013, archived September 20, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190920101737/https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/en/2013/09/21/did_maurice_lippensdeceivesmallinvestors-1-1734811/