Biography

He is the grandson of Alexandre Galopin

Alexandre Galopin

Alexandre Galopin was a Belgian businessman. He was director of the Société Générale de Belgique, a large Belgian company founded in 1822 by William I....

 (1879-1944), former director and governor of the Société Générale de Belgique

Société Générale de Belgique

The Société Générale de Belgique was one of the largest companies that ever existed in Belgium. It was founded in 1822 by William I, and existed until 2003, when its then sole shareholder, Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux, merged it with Tractebel to form Suez-Tractebel.-History:As part of the terms of the...

 (the main financial group of the country), and son of baron Pierre de Bonvoison (b. 1903), also a director of the Société Générale and of the insurance group AG, among others.

De Bonvoisin was the owner of the Cidep company, which published the magazine

Magazine

Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...

 Nouvelle Europe Magazine.

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

Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....

 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.

De Bonvoisin is alleged to be 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

Humanist Democratic Centre

The Humanist Democratic Centre is a Francophone Christian democratic political party in Belgium. The cdH currently participates in the Government of the Brussels-Capital Region, the Government of the French Community and the Walloon Government.- History :...

. 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 political movement "Forces Nouvelles

Forces nouvelles

Forces nouvelles can refer to:*Forces Nouvelles de Côte d'Ivoire: a political party coalition and one of the sides in the Ivorian Civil War...

" (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 Vanden Boeynants

Paul Emile François Henri Vanden Boeynants was a Belgian politician. He served as the 41st Prime Minister of Belgium for two brief periods ....

, 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

Front de la Jeunesse (Belgium)

The Front de la Jeunesse was a Belgian private militia. It was founded in 1973 by members of one of the so-called NEM-Clubs, situated around the Nouvel Europe Magazine....

, 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

Belgian stay-behind network

The Belgian stay-behind network, colloquially called "Gladio" was a secret mixed civilian and military unit, trained to form a resistance movement in the event of a Soviet invasion and part of a network of similar organizations in NATO-countries...

 of the Operation Gladio

Operation Gladio

Operation Gladio is the codename for a clandestine NATO "stay-behind" operation in Italy after World War II. Its purpose was to continue anti-communist actions in the event of a shift to a Communist party led government...

.

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

Nijvel gang

The Nijvel gang or the Brabant killers is a group or groups thought to be responsible for the "Brabant massacres", a series of violent attacks that occurred mostly in the province of Brabant in Belgium...

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

Albert Raes

Albert Raes was a Belgian magistrate and head of the Belgian Security Services.-Biography:Raes is the son of Firmin Raes, executive at 'La Brugeoise' and chief of The Chamber of Rhetoric 'De Drie Santinnen'...

, former head of the Belgian State Security Service

Belgian State Security Service

The Belgian State Security Service, known in Dutch as Veiligheid van de Staat, or Staatsveiligheid , and in French as Sûreté de l'État , is a Belgian intelligence agency...

.