Sven Giegold

18 months imprisonment or bankruptcy due to LuxLeaks? Proclamation of sentence of Antoine Deltour, 29 June at 3pm in Luxembourg – invitation to press briefing

On Tuesday, 29th of June at 3pm, the Criminal Court of Luxembourg will pronounce its sentence in the case of the LuxLeaks whistleblowers Antoine Deltour, Raphael Halet and Edourd Perrin. The public prosecutors demand 18 months, possibly suspended, imprisonment. An example is being made of Antoine Deltour, in order to silence future whistleblowers who do not act in their own interest, but in the public interest. The prosecution carried out by the Luxembourg judiciary on a complaint by PwC is a farce. Additionally, Deltour faces a fine. PwC proposes a symbolic Euro by civil law. However, the judge may impose a fine on Deltour amounting up to 1 Million Euro by criminal law.

I will be in Luxembourg for the verdict. Whistleblowers in the public interest should be protected, not prosecuted. People acting for the common good must be able to rely on the protection of the society. Therefore, I would be pleased to give you an interview before or after the verdict on Wednesday, 29th of June at 3pm. For interview requests and further questions, please do not hesitate to contact my team in Brussels either on +32 228 45369 or sven.giegold@ep.europa.eu

Ps: My testimony as a witness of the defence can be found here:

https://sven-giegold.de/2016/luxleaks-trial-refusal-eu-commissioner-vestager-give-evidence-poor-show/

 

Background information

Antoine Deltour, tax expert and former employee of the consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC ) is the whistleblower to whom we owe the revelation of the Europe’s largest tax scandal. With the LuxembourgLeaks, Deltour revealed how large companies such as E.ON, Disney, Skype and many others systematically avoid taxes on the European and global level. Since 26 April, Antoine Deltour his former PwC colleague Raphael Halet and journalist Edouard Perrin, have been facing charges in front of the Criminal Court in Luxembourg.

These charges include: theft, custody of material obtained through money laundering, violation of professional secrecy, violation of business secrets and the fraudulent intrusion into computer systems.

With the new EU trade secret directive, whistleblowers like Antoine Deltour can now be prosecuted throughout Europe. However, only with the courage of whistleblowers like Deltour, the public will have access to information that reveal harmful tax practices of companies and the inactions of governments. Therefore, we Greens want a European law to protect whistleblowers and a European fund to support their work in the public interest.

On 4th May 2016, the last day of Antoine Deltour, the Greens/EFA group and the ITCO intergroup in the European Parliament presented a draft directive for the protection of whistle-blowers across Europe at a public event. The draft Directive aims to inspire the European Commission to use its power to propose legislation for the protection of whistle-blowers across Europe.

The draft directive for the protection of whistleblowers in the public and private sector can be found here:

http://www.greens-efa.eu/fileadmin/dam/Images/Transparency_campaign/WB_directive_draft_for_consultation_launch_May_2016.pdf

 

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