Nigel Farage’s partner is embroiled in a criminal investigation involving allegations of fraud at a Eurosceptic group that she ran when they were both working in Brussels.
Laure Ferrari served as executive director of the Institute for Direct Democracy in Europe (IDDE), a think tank based in the Belgian capital, when auditors refused to sign off spending of hundreds of thousands of euros of public funds in 2016.
The European Commission anti-fraud unit spent years investigating the organisation, and an affiliated parliamentary group of which Ukip was the biggest party, before handing the case onto local law enforcement.
Chamber 69 of the Tribunal de première instance, a Brussels court specialising in financial crime, is due to make its judgment on November 5.
Ann Lukowiak, a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor, confirmed it would be a “final judgement where appeal will be possible”. She would not say which individuals were under investigation, or what sanctions were being proposed, citing confidentiality.
Ferrari said the investigation was the result of a politically biased part of the European parliament and “fake” accusations leaked by a hostile MEP.
