Luxembourg tax whistleblower says he acted out of conviction
Former PricewaterhouseCoopers auditor charged with theft and violating trade secrets in wake of LuxLeaks scandal speaks out
A 28-year-old former PricewaterhouseCoopers auditor charged with theft and violating trade secrets in Luxembourg in the wake of the LuxLeaks tax avoidance scandal has revealed his identity and claimed he acted out of conviction, in an interview with the French newspaper Libération.
Antoine Deltour, who joined PwC from business school in 2008, resigned two years later. “Normally auditors are a bit like regulators. It is a useful profession, we verify the accounts of companies,” he told the newspaper. “But I wasn’t feeling at home in that environment [at PwC]. Bit by bit I discovered how extreme the system was in reality – it was a massive tax optimisation practice. I didn’t want to be part of that.”
The interview was published after he appeared before a Luxembourg judge last Friday to answer allegations about leaked tax rulings. The case stems from a complaint brought by PwC in 2012.
After Friday’s hearing an investigating judge issued a statement saying an unnamed individual had been charged with a string of criminal offences including theft, violation of professional secrecy, violation of trade secrets and illegally accessing a database.
Last month the Guardian and more than 20 news media around the world, in conjunction with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), published detailed investigations into the tax affairs of several multinationals based on leaked tax rulings secured by PwC for large clients.
Luxembourg’s finance minister Pierre Gramegna has described the affair as “the worst attack Luxembourg has experienced in its history”. But his counterparts in France, Germany and Italy suggested the revelations had brought Europe to an “obvious … turning point” in the international debate on unfair tax competition.
“Since certain tax practices of countries and taxpayers have become public recently, the limits of permissible tax competition between member states have shifted,” they said in a letter to Pierre Moscovici, European commissioner with responsibility for tax. “This development is irreversible.”
Deltour, who said he had not passed information to the ICIJ, told Libération: “From the beginning, I acted out of conviction, for my ideas, not to appear in the media.”
He added that he was part of “a broader movement” — a reference to the fact that the Guardian and other media working with the ICIJ had this month published more revelations and further confidential tax rulings secured by Ernst & Young, KPMG and Deloitte.
PwC’s Luxembourg practice had turnover of €276m (£219m) for the year to June 2013, up more than 12% on the previous 12 months. Tax advice accounted for 29% of revenues for the firm, up from 24% two years ago.
The Luxembourg partnership has a staff of 2,300, making it an important employer in the tiny country where 45% of its 550,000 residents are foreigners.
Despite the scandal that engulfed PwC last month, Gramegna and prime minister Xavier Bettel attended the official opening of the firm’s new 30,000 sq m office building, Crystal Park, in Gasperich, the southern part of Luxembourg City.
