---
born: 1943-05-09
category: Belgium Scandals
created: 2026-05-15
location: Knokke, Belgium
relations:
- end: 2008
  fn: 1
  role: chairman
  type: head_of
  with: '[[Fortis]]'
- fn: 2
  role: brother
  type: relative_of
  with: '[[Count Leopold Lippens]]'
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.
tags:
- Person
- Belgium
- Dutroux
- Elite
- Fortis
updated: 2026-09-22
---

Maurice Lippens is the brother of [Count Leopold Lippens](/people/count-leopold-lippens/), mayor of [Knokke-Heist](/places/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

In the [X-Dossier](/events/x-dossier/) investigation under Judge [Jean-Marc Connerotte](/people/jean-marc-connerotte/), the witness X1, [Regina Louf](/people/regina-louf/), named Maurice and Leopold Lippens, with [Paul Vanden Boeynants](/people/paul-vanden-boeynants/) and [Baron Benoit de Bonvoisin](/people/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]

[^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/