International Investigation into the Luxletters
Paris – July 1, 2020
International media partners of The Signals Network are publishing today the Luxletters investigation related to the possible existence of secret tax practices in Luxembourg for designated multinational corporations that likely breach EU transparency rules, according to our partner Tax Justice Network.
This investigation is the result of weeks of investigation by the media partners of the Tax Justice Network and The Signals Network including Die Sueddeutsche Zeitung (Germany), Le Monde (France), El Mundo (Spain), Woxx (Luxembourg) and Investigative Reporting Project Italy (Italy).
These media partners represent a cumulative audience of more than 30 million readers in 5 languages.
After sources provided information to its media partners, The Signals Network coordinated the logistics of their collaboration and, for some of them, legal support.
Working for the larger public interest, the media groups worked together to maximize the impact of their reports. They shared information, investigated the leads as a team, coordinated with each other as they decided their respective formats and angle of the stories, and published under a common embargo.
The Tax Justice Network is an independent, international network fighting against tax abuse and tax havens which advised the media partners on this investigation with the support of SOMO, the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations.
“The secret tax practices at the center of what is being called the LuxLetters scandal allow multinational corporations to circumvent transparency measures that Luxembourg was pressured to adopt specifically in response to their corporate tax abuses exposed by the LuxLeaks scandal3 in 2014”, says Tax Justice Network.
“This new investigation highlights that it is still necessary to draw attention to the tax practices in Luxembourg. I am pleased with the role played by The Signals Network, which, by coordinating journalists and securing their sources, maintains the pressure to move towards greater tax justice“, says Antoine Deltour, Luxleaks whistleblower and member of the Board of Directors of The Signals Network.
