Team chairman Filippo Gaone and lawyer Laurent Denis formally were charged late Thursday after police searched 20 homes and offices, seizing documents, computers and mobile phones. Five other people were questioned.

The federal prosecutor filed theft, fraud and forgery charges against Gaone. Denis was accused of helping him channel money illegally from La Louviere to Gaone-owned companies.

Gaone and Denis were arrested as part of a probe into allegations that a Shanghai-based crime ring had paid thousands of dollars to fix top games in Belgium.

Belgian justice officials said Thursday that a former La Louviere player, Olivier Suray, has admitted he fixed a match in Finland on May 2, 2005, that generated unusually heavy betting at the request of Chinese businessman Zheyun Ye.