Stéphanie Gibaud talks whistleblowers & tax justice at Dark Havens
Stéphanie Gibaud
talks about becoming a spy for the French authorities, the impact on her life and ongoing search for justice after blowing the whistle on tax fraud at UBS.
Tax Havens + UBS + Whistleblowers + Tax Justice + #DNL15
UBS Whistleblower, FR
Twitter:
@Steph_and_me
Stéphanie Gibaud wrote the book Whistleblowers: The Man Hunt (2017) with an introduction by Julian Assange. In 2018, she was a jury member of the GUE/NGL Award in honor of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. She will also be a jury member in 2019.
As a Public Relations specialist, if I had shredded the documents UBS suddenly asked me to destroy in 2008, I could have risked prison. I was working for UBS Marketing Department and had absolutely no idea of the scope of the documents, which I was supposed to get rid of. Searches were taking place; I refused to be part of illegal activities & blew the whistle internally. When in a weakened state because of the harassment I was suffering at UBS, I was targeted by the French state in 2011 and, constraint by the law, had to communicate confidential information to the French Ministry of Finances, which have widely helped to identify numerous offshore bank accounts. Stéphanie Gibaud
- Whistleblowers: The Man Hunt
- La traque des lanceurs d’alerte, Stéphanie Gibaud
- Préface de Julian Assange, Publisher Max Milo Editions
- UBS ordered to pay £3.9bn by French court over raft of violations
- UBS Whistleblower’s Paltry Reward
- FT: How French authorities used a whistleblower to sting UBS bankers (read article) by David Keohane in Paris, March 1, 2019
- *UBS were eventually fined €4.5 billion for recruiting clients in France and helping them evade taxes.
SILENCED BY POWER
Anti-corruption Journalists and Whistleblowers Facing Violence and Persecution
Pelin Ünker (Freelance Journalist, Member of ICIJ.org, TR) Stéphanie Gibaud (UBS Whistleblower, FR) Khadija Ismayilova (Investigative journalist and Radio Host, AZ – on video), Moderated by Michael Hornsby (Communications Officer, Transparency International, UK/DE).
Introduced by the video: Daphne Caruana Galizia. Anti-Corruption Award Winner 2018 (Transparency International, directed by David Velduque, produced by Neurads). This panel focuses on the personal impact of investigative journalism, truth-telling, and whistleblowing in the context of exposing offshore corruption and tax havens. The aim is to cover the work of courageous women who are suffering the consequences of their activities in the field of anti-corruption, paying with their life, direct threats, travel bans, and limitations to work.
The panel is introduced by the video “Daphne Caruana Galizia. Anti-Corruption Award Winner 2018”, an interview with Paul Caruana Galizia, son of Daphne Caruana Galizia, the investigative journalist from Malta who was assassinated on October 16, 2017, when a bomb placed under the seat of her car exploded. Daphne Caruana Galizia uncovered a thread of hidden connections linking major multinational deals, passport sales, and global money-laundering operations, leading her investigation to the heart of Malta’s government. Journalist Pelin Ünker presents the story of her reporting on the then Prime Minister’s connections to corporations in Malta, as revealed in the Paradise Papers. She currently faces trial and a prison sentence in Turkey.
Stéphanie Gibaud, a whistleblower from France, tells her story of revealing tax evasion and tax fraud by the investment bank UBS.
Finally, the panel shows a video contribution by Khadija Ismayilova, the Azerbaijani investigative journalist and radio host well known for her reports on corruption in Azerbaijan, who faces 3.5 years in probation, a two-year ban on professional activity, a travel ban and other restrictions, after being imprisoned in December 2014. The panel is moderated by Michael Hornsby, communications officer at Transparency International.
#DNL15 DARK HAVENS
brings together people from around the world who have been part of global investigations and leaks, have blown the whistle on corporations, been put on trial, and who have taken severe personal risks to confront hidden money and power.
15th conference of the Disruption Network Lab. Curated by Tatiana Bazzichelli. In cooperation with Transparency International.
Twitter: @disruptberlin
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