Two former PwC employees, both French nationals, have been given suspended sentences for their role in revealing confidential data about the Luxembourg authorities’ tax deals with large companies, which formed form part of the so-called ‘LuxLeaks’ investigation
Antoine Deltour received a 12 month suspended sentence, plus a fine of €1500, while Raphael Halet was given a nine month suspended sentence and fined €1000.
Deltour was found guilty on charges including theft and violating Luxembourg’s strict professional secrecy laws.
The court was told that Deltour had copied 45,000 pages of documents which he was able to access because of a security lapse in the company’s servers, now fixed.
The prosecution said that this data, plus material supplied by Halet was used in the 'LuxLeaks' investigation carried out by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and published in November 2014.
This showed that some 340 big companies, including Burberry, Pepsi, Ikea, Heinz, Shire Pharmaceuticals, Walt Disney and Heinz among others, secured ‘sweetheart’ deals from Luxembourg designed to reduce their tax bills.
French television journalist Edouard Perrin, who used the leaked data for a broadcast made in 2012, was acquitted of all charges.
Both men have said they will appeal. One of Deltour's lawyers William Bourdon called the verdict ‘scandalous’, suggesting the pair had acted as whistleblowers and the message of Luxembourg's justice system was for multinationals to ‘sleep tight’.
A statement from PwC Luxembourg said the firm would analyse the court’s decision within the coming days.
The statement said: ‘PwC Luxembourg remains firmly committed to protect the confidentiality of its clients' documents and data.’
