Roger De Clerck (July 27, 1924 – October 23, 2015) was a Belgian entrepreneur and CEO of the Beaulieu textile group.
De Clerck born in Wielsbeke, the second son of a flax farmer who owned a large farm, "Ter Lembeek" there.
[2] In normal circumstances he would have taken over his father's farm, but the flax market collapsed around this time and he was forced to look for another source of income.
The only branches that were kept out were Domo (because Jan had fallen into dishonor with his father) and Beaulieu in America (which Mieke preferred to keep independent).
In 1989 five business employees, including his sons Jan and Dominiek, spent a week in jail in England, because they had sold their carpets in black market money.
An associate of Jan, Ronny Verhoeven - who was a banker at Generale Bank in Sint-Niklaas - had laundered black market money through fake commission fees and bills.
[3] Roger De Clerck himself was suspected from forgery of documents, gang organisation and violation of the laws for venture taxes.
The Beaulieu group was thought to have had paid fake commission payments to a Libanese business family for years.
[2] They officially acted as middle man for the sales in the Middle-East and Russia, but according to the researchers they were simply straw men.
Their commission payments on sold products were meant to scoop off the profits of the Beaulieu branches and were returned to the family in the shape of loans, investments or black market money.
This event attracted a lot of press attention when he invited world-famous politicians to meet him at his garden party, including Margaret Thatcher and George H. W.