Top cycling director investigated by fraud squad

The same Belgian tax-fraud investigation that is looking into Tom Boonen’s affairs is also taking on RadioShack-Leopard sport director Dirk Demol, reports Cycling News. Demol is suspected of using a Luxembourg company address as an illegal mailbox. The investigation centres on Belgian accountant Jan Vanden Abeele, who is suspected of helping his Belgian customers circumvent taxes. In Demol’s case, he is said to have set up a bogus Luxembourg mailing address, to enable him to avoid Belgian taxes, according to Het Nieuwsblad. The newspaper said there was evidence of the Luxembourg mailbox.  “We are also investigating whether he committed offences by sending invoices from that company while his activities were actually in Belgium,” the court told the newspaper. Demol, whose house was searched yesterday, said he did not know much of the matter, and at the moment is with the team at the Giro d’Italia. He indicated that his relationship with Banden Abeele was in the past. “The man in question gave me advice when I was his customer. I assumed, of course, that everything was legal and that everything was by the book. That is logical, isn’t it. I have always had the utmost confidence in Jan Vanden Abeele as an accountant.” Boonen is under investigation for the time he lived in Monaco, from 2005 to 2012, for allegedly not declaring enough of his income to Belgian authorities.