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Thursday, March 16, 2017

Former employees of PricewaterhouseCoopers turned whistleblowers, Antoine Deltour and Raphael Halet, went back to court on Wednesday 15th March, appealing last year’s sentences over the Luxembourg Leaks. The former colleagues leaked documents that showed Luxembourg’s tax rulings helping multinational companies evade tax within the country.

Both men received reduced sentences. Deltour’s original 12-month jail term was reduced to a six month suspended sentence plus a 1,500 euro fine. Halet was given a 1,000 euro fine in place of a nine-month prison sentence. Both were instructed to pay a symbolic sum to PricewaterhouseCoopers of one euro.

The investigative reporter, Edouard Perrin, who assembled the leaked documents for French public television in 2012 and 2013, was again acquitted. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the organisation behind the publication of the leaked documents, have since uncovered other tax misconduct in other companies such such as the Panama Papers and Football Leaks.

There has been controversy over the current head of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, leading the investigation. Juncker was Prime Minister of Luxembourg at the time the tax evasion scheme by PricewaterhouseCoopers was revealed.

While the court acknowledged the whistleblower status of the two men, it recognised that neither were protected under national or European law. The group, Support Antoine, said in a statement that the court “recognizes the whistleblower’s role and the public interest of the revelations but anyhow concludes on a condemnation”.

Despite NGO protests and MEPs calling for whistleblower protection, the EU has not taken steps to change legislation, however, has taken action against tax fraud in Europe. A multitude of enquiries into high profile firms is currently underway and laws to help stop multinational tax evasion and tax fraud in Europe have been implemented.

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