Laurent Hericord, boss of Avrox, a Luxembourg company which had supplied 15 million fabric mouth masks to Belgium at the height of the pandemic, appeared on Monday afternoon before the Brussels council chamber after being arrested and placed under arrest warrant for the second time last week. His lawyer, Me Laurent Kennes, requested the release of his client but the decision of the council chamber in this regard was not yet known Monday evening.
The Avrox mask scandal
At the end of April 2020, in the midst of a health crisis, the Wilmès government had promised a fabric mask for each Belgian. The Ministry of Defense then launched a call for tenders and finally chose two companies: the Luxembourg company Avrox and the Ghent company Tweed&Cotton. The first had been awarded a delivery of 15 million masks, while the second would provide three million.
The Brussels public prosecutor’s office had opened an investigation into this purchase from Avrox in June, after several companies claimed that they considered themselves unfairly excluded from the call for tenders. There were also questions about the company and its experience. In May 2021, as part of this judicial investigation for, in particular, prevention of forgery, use of forgery, fraud, money laundering and obstruction of the freedom of auctions and tenders, searches were carried out in several European countries, and two people were deprived of their liberty. One of them was Laurent Hericord, the boss of Avrox.
The man was conditionally released after a month but was rearrested and detained last week for allegedly breaching the conditions of his temporary release and committing further acts of forgery. The Brussels public prosecutor’s office makes no comment on this case, but according to Me Kennes, Mr. Hericord disputes that he can be blamed for anything. “He allegedly violated his terms by having contact with one of his closest friends“, explains the lawyer, who asked for the release of his client. “In addition, other parties submitted documents to the investigating judge requesting the release of certain goods that had been seized. Justice suspects document fraud and that my client is involved. We strongly disagree.”