He is also the founder of Protea, a pro-apartheid Belgian organisation which assisted the South African apartheid government in money laundering and circumventing sanctions through Kredietbank.
[1] Vlerick's lobbying efforts extended to a pan-European formation called Eurosa.
In addition to Protea in Belgium, there were “sister organisations” in Austria, Britain, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and West Germany.
Evidence collected from Vlerick's archive has established that Eurosa received direct funding from the apartheid government.
He was instrumental in the post-war years of the successful Flemish economic development.