Italian authorities have arrested Lucia Simeone, an assistant to EPP MEP Fulvio Martusciello, under a European arrest warrant issued by Belgian prosecutors. She faces charges of criminal association, money laundering, and corruption, and will be questioned on Saturday.
It’s unclear if her arrest ties to two ongoing investigations involving Martusciello—one concerning Huawei and another related to expense fraud. Media reports from Le Soir, Knack, and Follow the Money have revealed that Belgian police have been investigating Martusciello and former MEP Giuseppe Ferrandino (Renew) for over a year. The pair are suspected of forging signatures to claim fraudulent parliamentary allowances, allegedly helping each other inflate their expenses.
Martusciello’s name has also surfaced in connection with a Portuguese lawyer arrested in France last week, part of the broader Belgian investigation into Huawei’s lobbying activities, as reported by L’Expresso. Last week, Belgian authorities sealed offices belonging to EPP MEP Marco Falcone and Adam Mouchtar, an assistant to Bulgarian Renew lawmaker Nikola Minchev. While Falcone’s office seals were recently removed, he plans to pursue legal action over the damage to his reputation, claiming no connection to the Huawei probe.
So far, the Belgian investigation has led to the arrest of four Huawei-linked lobbyists suspected of bribing MEPs to advance Chinese interests in Europe. Further details on Simeone’s arrest and any links to Martusciello’s cases are expected soon.
