Over the past half-decade, Brussels has dissolved over 7,500 ghost companies, as revealed in a report by L'Echo on Saturday. However, rather than vanishing entirely, many of these entities

have migrated their headquarters to other regions, predominantly Flanders.

These ghost companies, established to skirt legal boundaries and conceal illicit operations, exist solely on paper with a nominal director and serve as vehicles for fraudulent activities.

Since 2019, the French-speaking commercial court in Brussels has disbanded 7,533 such entities, witnessing a yearly surge in dissolved companies, culminating in a peak of 2,313 closures in 2023. Concurrently, the Dutch-speaking courts have experienced a rise in similar cases.

The Rise of 'Company Dumping'

The escalation in dissolved ghost companies is attributed to the inception of the 'Company Dumping' platform in 2018. Collaborating authorities launched this initiative to eradicate the misuse of ghost companies by criminal syndicates for activities like social fraud and drug money laundering.

"In 2019, Brussels faced a significant issue with around 10,000 ghost companies. Today, the number of dormant companies is negligible," remarks Paul Dhaeyer, president of the French-speaking commercial court.

Despite the significant reduction in Brussels, criminal organizations have relocated their ghost companies to Flemish Brabant or Walloon Brabant. This was starkly evident in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, where authorities uncovered more than 400 ghost companies coalescing at a single address. Photo by Varech, Wikimedia commons.