The person accused of lifting the lid on Luxembourg’s tax deals with dozens of multinational companies has had the book thrown at him – or her, as the identity of the accused is being kept secret.
Whoever it is, they are now accused of all sorts of misdeeds as the LuxLeaks revelations severely embarrassed the current president of the EU, Jean-Claude Juncker who was the Luxembourg PM for a decade.
The Junkers administration authorised cosy tax deals for many household name companies as the rest of Europe got tough on corporate tax avoiders.
The accusations centre on the theft of internal documents by an employee of PWC Luxembourg back in June 2012.
The documents outlined and detailed tax avoidance schemes available to companies that registered in Luxembourg and revealed hundreds of tax agreements between the Luxembourg tax administration and subsidiaries of multinationals, which allowed the latter to pay minimal taxes on mostly European operations.
PWC opened a quiet investigation, which was relaunched this November after the leaks were broadcast by a consortium of investigative journalists.
PWC Luxembourg estimates that the theft of documents was carried out in September 2010 by a former employee, who copied confidential information and was not rumbled for two years until French journalists showed PWC their own documents detailing the tax deals.
The whistle blower stands accused of theft, violation of professional secrecy and money laundering,
