Deltour and Halet found guilty in LuxLeaks trial

Antoine Deltour and Raphaël Halet, both ex-PwC accountants, have been found guilty of leaking documents in the Luxleaks trial and given a suspended prison sentence of 12 months and 9 months respectively.

They have also been fined €1,500 for Deltour and €1,000 for Halet.

According to local news reports they are both said to appeal the verdict.

Deltour and Halet blew the whistle over PwC’s role in brokering sweetheart tax deals between their clients and the then Jean-Claude Junker-led Luxembourg government. Junker is currently the president of the European Commission.

During the trial prosecutors have asked for a 18-month jail sentence for Deltour and Halet.

A journalist, Edouard Perrin, who broke to news of the leaks, was acquitted of all charges.

The Tax Justice Network published a statement from Deltour on their website : "sentencing the citizens at the origin of LuxLeaks revelations is equivalent to sentencing the regulatory advancements which have been triggered by these revelations and which have been widely acclaimed across Europe. This is also a warning towards future whistleblowers, which is detrimental to citizen’s information and the good functioning of the democracy."

As a result of LuxLeaks, the European Parliament set up in 2015 a Special Committee on Tax Rulings (TAXE committee) aimed at investigating tax rulings and aggressive avoidance in the EU.

Later the European Commission proposed a Tax Transparency Package of measures to fight tax avoidance, notably the automatic exchange of tax rulings between member states.

At the time of publication, PwC were yet to make a statement.

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