Benoît, Baron de Bonvoisin (born 14 March 1939), also known as The Black Baron, is a Belgian far-right activist.VDB Un Citoyen Au-Dessus De Tout Soupçon - Page 138 Jan Willems "Le baron Benoît de Bonvoisin est né en 1939 et est célibataire. Vers 1970, il entra au Cercle des Nations. Le bruit court qu'il aurait aidé financièrement Emile Lecerf lorsque celui-ci reprit le 'Nouvel Europe Magazine'"

Biography

He is the grandson of Alexandre Galopin (1879–1944), former director and governor of the

Société Générale de Belgique The ' (, ; often referred to in Belgium simply as "Société Générale" or SGB) was an investment bank and, subsequently, an industrial and financial conglomerate in Belgium between 1822 and 2003. It has been described as the world's first u ...

(the main financial group of the country), and son of baron Pierre de Bonvoisin (b. 1903), also a director of the Société Générale and of the insurance group AG, among others. Bonvoisin was the owner of the Cidep company, which published the

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

''Nouvelle Europe Magazine''.

Legal controversies

Although convicted to one-year imprisonment in 1986 for his connection to the

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...

of the ''Boomse Metaalwerken'', de Bonvoisin was cleared of this crime in May 2000. In 1996, de Bonvoisin would be tried for fraud, involving his Cidep and PDG companies. In the case of Cidep he was cleared, the case PDG was annulled.

Connections to the far right

De Bonvoisin is connected to various far-right Belgian movements. According to Serge Dumont, he was from 1974 on the national treasurer of the "CEPIC", at the time a far right organization within the Parti Social Chrétien. He used his connections with the business world to finance this organization. In 1975 he was involved in plans for the foundation of the

far right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and Nativism (politics), nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on ...

political movement " Forces Nouvelles" (''New Powers'') through the reading circles of ''Nouvelle Europe Magazine''. Walter De Bock mentions him as an important factor in a case of illegal campaign funding for

Paul Vanden Boeynants Paul Emile François Henri Vanden Boeynants (, ; 22 May 1919 – 9 January 2001) was a Belgian politician.
Rulers. Retrieved 30 August 201 ...

, former Belgian Prime Minister and then Minister of Defence by contractors working for the ministry of defence. According to a note from the Belgian State Security, published by De Bock, de Bonvoisin financially supported the Front de la Jeunesse, a private militia disbanded in 1983. Hugo Gijsels alleges that de Bonvoisin, through his company PDG, was the main financer of ''Inforep'', the publication of the "Public Information Office" (PIO) of the Belgian Ministry of Defence. In 1978, PIO was disbanded by the General Staff of the army for its connections with the far right. The organization was later connected, by the Belgian Parliamentary Special Inquiry Committee, to the Belgian part of the

Operation Gladio Operation Gladio was the codename for clandestine " stay-behind" operations of armed resistance that were organized by the Western Union (WU; founded in 1948), and subsequently by NATO (formed in 1949) and by the CIA (established in 1947), in ...

. De Bonvoisin is pejoratively nicknamed the "Black Baron," for alleged connections to the

Nijvel Gang The Brabant killers are a group of unidentified criminals responsible for a series of violent attacks that mainly occurred in the Belgian province of Brabant between 1982 and 1985. A total of 28 people died and 22 were injured in their attacks. ...

CCC CCC may refer to: Arts and entertainment * CCC, the production code for the 1970 ''Doctor Who'' serial ''The Ambassadors of Death'' * Color Climax Corporation, a Danish pornography producer * Comics Campaign Council, a British pressure grou ...

and

Gladio Operation Gladio was the codename for clandestine "stay-behind" operations of armed resistance that were organized by the Western Union (WU; founded in 1948), and subsequently by NATO (formed in 1949) and by the CIA (established in 1947), in c ...

, and the financing of "fascist and militant groups." The term was first coined by

Albert Raes Albert Raes (Bruges 21 February 1932) was a Belgian magistrate and was head of the Belgian Security Services from 1977 until 1990. Biography Raes is the son of Firmin Raes, who was an executive at the train and railway manufacturer and the chief ...

, former head of the

Belgian State Security Service The State Security Service (VSSE) (known in Dutch as ''Staatsveiligheid''; French: ''Sûreté de l'État'') is a Belgian intelligence and security agency. Established in 1830, it is the world's oldest intelligence service. The State Security i ...

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bonvoisin, Benoit 1939 births Living people Belgian businesspeople Barons of Bonvoisin Belgian barons Political controversies in Belgium