In countless cases, whistleblowers are essential for defending the public interest – leaving a lasting legacy when they do. In February 2023, the European Court of Human Rights reaffirmed the vital role of whistleblowers by ruling in favour of Raphaël Halet, who was prosecuted and convicted for disclosing documents to investigative journalist Edouard Perrin in 2012. Employed by international accountants PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Halet and fellow employee Antoine Deltour helped expose aggressive corporate tax avoidance schemes developed by PwC for multinational clients in Luxembourg. Known as the Luxleaks scandal, their revelations showed that companies saved billions in taxes by channelling hundreds of billions of dollars through the country – yet all three were prosecuted for breaching corporate secrecy. Throughout their trials, which took them all the way to the Luxemburg highest court, Transparency International issued press releases in support of the whistleblowers. In the end, Halet was convicted and ordered to pay a criminal fine of €1,000 – the only one of the three defendants whose conviction was upheld.
He took his case to the European Court of Human Rights, which ultimately found that the public interest in Halet’s disclosure outweighed any detrimental consequences, and that his rights had been violated. The court’s ruling stated that Halet’s revelations made “an essential contribution” to the “public debate on the tax practices of multinational companies”. The judgement is an important victory for speaking up in the public interest and reinforces the principle that whistleblowing is not a crime, but rather, a powerful tool for upholding integrity. The case also helped prompt the European Commission (EC) to finally put forward the EU Whistleblowing Directive adopted in 2019. The EC cited Luxleaks as one of the scandals that showed that “whistleblowers can play an important role in uncovering unlawful activities that damage the public interest and the welfare of our citizens and society.”
Source: Transparency International https://www.transparency.org/en/blog/whistleblower-stories-individuals-safeguarded-public-interest-exposing-misconduct?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly-17-01-2025
