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,
Comments
Do not break the Gentlemen's Agreement or thou shall be crumbled!
We can also be sure that he or she will have the book thrown at him or her, that the legal establishment will back up the political elite and the he or she will spend a lot of time behind bars.
Private Eye exposed these deals first and Cameron followed up by opposing Juncker´s appointment to the top job. Now this public spirited individual will be squashed by the political version of the giant vampire squid.
I am pleased that this scheme now is out in the open, it does PWC no credit at all.
Really??
He or she deserves a medal me thinks.
Perhaps PWC and the rest of the grubby tax avoidance fraternity should hang their heads in shame?
We are all paying a tax premium for these tax dodging multi nationals, aided and abetted by these rascals