Antoine Deltour, an employee of the audit multinational PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) who disclosed information about the LuxLeaks scandal, has been sentenced to one year in prison for breaching Luxembourg’s professional secrets law and for appropriating illegal databases, ultimately for theft. Raphaël Halet has also been convicted of murder in the trial, which has lasted for ten months. The journalist Edouard Perrin has been freed. On the contrary, defendants (Amazon, Ikea, Fiat, Pepsi, Apple...) have not yet been sued.

OXFAM says: "Those who flee from paying taxes are strengthened from this trial, in which the law is on their side. From now on, he will be a very brave person to talk about tax fraud, because he will have to deal with the big fines or the possibility of going to jail.” Difficult times for alerts, in English whistleblower, in Spanish alerts and in French lanceur d’alerte.

Luxembourg Leaks or LuxLeaks is the scandal of Luxembourg’s public finance agreements to evade taxes on customers across Europe via audit firms. During the months of November and December 2014, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists ICIJ published the LuxLeaks documents twice. 28,000 pages containing 548 tax treaties processed by the PwC audit multinational with Luxembourg authorities on behalf of 343 companies. The leak showed that Luxembourg had organised an industrial fraud.

Since 1990, Luxembourg has specialized in the financial industry, attracting subsidiaries of large foreign companies through the classic mechanics of tax havens. Luxembourg officials have assured them through ATA Advanced Tax Agreement that they will not pay in taxes, but 29% of profits, or less.

Audit multinationals such as PwC in the midst of the Luxembourg treasury and the affiliated companies. In the Basque Country they are also known for their work of intermediation between large companies and public administrations. PwC itself participated in the financing operation of the Zubieta incinerator in Gipuzkoa in the case of toxic swaps; after being sued, the judges also made PwC a winner in Gipuzkoa.

Former Luxembourg Prime Minister, before being President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, was half captured by LuxLeaks between 1995 and 2013. At the outbreak of the scandal, he stated that he never interfered in a single dossier, that agreements between the Government and companies respect international law, despite the violation of tax justice and ethical and moral standards.

However, no one has prevented Juncker from sleeping; the companies that managed to pay 1% of the tax benefits have remained calm in their business, as have PwCk; and those who have been able to evade fraud have had serious headaches with justice.

Tax avoidance industry

Revista Rue89 found Antoine Deltour in Nancy, France, shortly before the trial, and the young woman in prison. She lives with her wife and her nine-year-old daughter. “If you punish me, I will file a complaint, not for me, but in favor of alerts.”

PwC started young, finishing Bordeaux commercial school. The 2008 crisis saw the importance of tax avoidance in Luxembourg. In order to change, get a position per competition at the French Institute for Economic Statistics and Research (INSEE) and dismiss PwC to start a new one vida.Pero without first receiving some hot PwC documents.

He copied the 350 ATA that passed through his hands: "Anyone can be an alert attacker. I have done no more than copy documents and hand them over to a journalist. Then the facts have come to my mind, yes, but I didn’t think so before.”

It was opened by Cash Investigation journalist Edouard Perrin. He didn't get much echo, but enough to start an internal investigation with PwCk and stop Deltour. In police station, he acknowledged, "I felt very lonely, quite lost." International criminal lawyer William Bourden recommended that, because he could not keep his anonymity, it would be best if he had a public face. With the appearance, the issue got fatter in the media as a snowball.

Thousands of letters, dozens of requests for dialogue... At first I answered personally, then it was a support group that took care of the work. It has needed everyone on the arrival of the day. The committee has also taken charge of the costs arising from the conduct of the trial. The French Finance Minister, Michel Sapin, has also publicly defended those responsible for INSEE, who have denied any attempt.

Deltour’s defense has always been clear, it has been presented as lanceur d’alerte, as an adversary that has not sought any personal benefit. “I am proud that these allegations have had concrete consequences, the risks I have taken have served something. Progress has been made in European standards.” In France, the Sapin 2 Act is mentioned, which must ensure the transparency of the administration and the safety of whistleblowers.

The second source of LuxLeaks, Raphaël Halet, has not had the same fate. Having signed the confidentiality clause with PwC in exchange for dismissal for the recovery of the compensation, it has not been able to give its face publicly. That has left the trial without official and financial support, and without the European Citizen’s Prize given to Deltour. Halet, who has jumped out of the case, has begun to speak in public.

As Deltour was a skilled worker, Halet was a humble secretary in charge of passing and copying documents into a scanner. When he saw the first leak in the Cash Investigation program, he realized the importance of his mechanical work. And he handed out more documents to the journalist.

At the trial, Halet explained how the ATA pact was passing daily to the Luxembourg finance officials, and at what speed they were handling it, in three minutes each ATA played millions of euros. Many millions of taxes left unpaid by any country in the world.

For example. The American Walmart, which does not have a single store in Luxembourg, has 22 fake companies for 64.2 billion dollars and in the period 2010-2013 paid less than 1% for a profit of 1.3 billion. The President of the European Government, Jean-Claude Juncker, who organised this industry, has today committed himself in Brussels. The wolf as a pastor.