Hearings
11-02-2019 19:00
Alleged financial crimes, tax evasion and tax avoidance in Malta

Several money laundering cases have been published in the recent years affecting different EU Member States. Given that some Maltese political exposed persons have been mentioned in different money laundering cases, an exchange of letters took place between the TAX3 committee and Maltese authorities in order to better understand the government's role and actions taken the Maltese authorities.
- Draft programme of the hearing (PDF - 361 KB)
- Webstreaming/Recordings
- Transcription (verbatim) (PDF - 493 KB)
- Biographies of the speakers (PDF - 338 KB)
-
Dr. Owen Bonnici, Minister for Justice of Malta
-
Stephen Grey, special correspondent and investigative journalist at Reuters
-
Matthew Caruana Galizia, investigative journalist and son of the murdered journalist from Malta, Daphne Caruana Galizia.
-
Background documents
- Letter from the Chair of TAX3 Special Committee to the Permanent Representative of Malta to the EU (PDF - 137 KB)
- Reply from the Permanent Representative of Malta to the EU to the Chair of TAX3 Special Committee (PDF - 164 KB)
- Stephen Grey's Reuters Article on UK Malta Daphne offshore exclusive (PDF - 630 KB)
- Stephen Grey's - The Guardian - Azeri ruling famlies linked to secret investments via Maltese Bank (PDF - 515 KB)
05-02-2019 09:00
Impact of tax evasion and money laundering on local real estate markets

Accommodation is an important part of citizens spending that price increase in real estate impacts.
- Draft programme (PDF - 375 KB)
- Webstreaming/Recordings
- Transcription (verbatim) (PDF - 555 KB)
- Biographies of the experts (PDF - 423 KB)
-
Ms Janet Sanz, Vice-Mayor of Barcelona and Member of the City Council in charge of Real Estate, Environment and Mobility
-
Ms Ilse Verker, Head of Unit at the department of Public Order and Security, responsible for the Programme on Illegal Money Flows and Undermining, City Council of Amsterdam.
-
Mr. Christoph Trautvetter, Public policy expert at Netzwerk Steuergerechtigkeit
-
Mr Nilmesh Baruah, CTPA’s Senior Tax and Crime Advisor - OECD
-
Mr Max Heywood, Financial transparency international representative
04-02-2019 18:30
Public hearing on "Deutsche Bank"

Deutsche Bank is one of the world systemic banks. In the recent years media have published different pieces of news on alleged money laundering and tax evasion activities involving Deutsche Bank. In order to shed some light to the different cases affecting the bank's public image a DB representative will describe the internal policy of this institution as well as the mechanisms in place to curb these activities.
- Draft programme of the hearing (PDF - 347 KB)
- Webstreaming/Recordings
- Registration information (PDF - 46 KB)
- Press release
- Transcription (verbatim) (PDF - 219 KB)
- Biographies of the speakers (PDF - 207 KB)
-
Jens Fürhoff, Director-General of the Directorate for the Prevention of Money Laundering - Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht
-
Stephan Wilken, Head of Anti Financial Crime and Deutsche Bank’s Group Anti Money Laundering Officer - Deutsche Bank Group
29-01-2019 14:30
Money laundering cases involving Russian individuals and their effect on the EU

On 29th of January, from 14.30 to 17.30, the TAX3 committee will hold a public hearing on “Money laundering cases involving Russian individuals and their effect on the EU”. Two panels combining experts including among others Mr Bill Browder will shed light on the complex cases of money laundering recently discovered. These cases have affected banks and finance corporations across the EU and evidence shows linkages with organized crime, such as demonstrated in the murder of Mr Magnitsky.
- Draft programme (PDF - 369 KB)
- Webstreaming/Recordings
- Registration information (PDF - 454 KB)
- Press release - Bill Browder and other experts detail Russia’s money laundering and loopholes to close
- Transcription (verbatim) (PDF - 571 KB)
- Biographies of the speakers (PDF - 215 KB)
-
Anders Åslund, Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council, Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University
-
Joshua Kirschenbaum, senior fellow at German Marshall Fund’s Alliance for Securing Democracy
-
Richard Brooks, Journalist at Private Eye and at the Guardian
-
Bill Browder, founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management
-
Günter Schirmer, Head of the secretariat of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, who is in charge of the Magnitsky Report.
-
Background documents
- Joshua Kirschenbaum's article - "A better European Union architecture to fight money laundering (PDF - 387 KB)
- Joshua Kirschenbaum´s article - "Deripaska, EN+, and Rusal: A Split Decision with Implications for U.S. Sanctions" (PDF - 111 KB)
- Joshua Kirschenbaum's and David Murray's article: "An Effective Amercan Regime to Counter Illicit Finance" (PDF - 458 KB)
- Richard Brook's article: "Looting with Putin" (PDF - 2 MB)
- CoE doc 14661 - Report Committee Legal Affairs and Human Rights on Sergei Magnitsky and Beyond - fighting impunity by targeted sanctions (PDF - 331 KB)
- CoE doc 2252(2019) - Parliamentary Assembly's Resolution on Sergei Magnitsky and beyond - fighting impunity by targeted sanctions (PDF - 175 KB)
24-01-2019 10:30
The evaluation of the Tax Gap

On 24th of January, from 10.30 to 12.00, the TAX3 committee will hold a public hearing on "The evaluation of the Tax Gap". The target of the hearing is to better understand the different methodologies to assess the amount of tax evasion and avoidance. The experts invited have published various and relevant articles and books aiming at better assessing the dimensions of this problem which would help policy makers to better tackle this issue.
- Draft programme of the hearing (PDF - 163 KB)
- Webstreaming/Recordings
- Registration information (PDF - 454 KB)
- Transcription (verbatim) (PDF - 308 KB)
- Biographies of the speakers (PDF - 762 KB)
-
Gaetan Nicodeme, Head of Unit of economic analysis, evaluation and impact assessment support - General-Directorate for Taxation and Customs Union - European Commission and Fiscalis tax gap project group representative
-
Annette Alstadsæter, Professor - School of Economics and Business - Norwegian University of Life Sciences
-
Petr Janský, Assistant Professor in Economics at the Charles University of Prague and author of the study on ’ Global distribution of revenue loss from tax avoidance’
24-01-2019 09:00
Alleged financial crimes, tax evasion and tax avoidance in Slovakia

On 24 January 2019, the TAX3 Committee will hold a hearing on “Alleged financial crimes, tax evasion and tax avoidance in Slovakia”. Investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his partner Martina Kusnirova were shot dead in February in what was the first targeted killing of a reporter in the country's history. Mr Kuciak, who was 27 at the time of his murder, had been investigating alleged financial crimes and tax frauds.
- Draft programme of the hearing (PDF - 364 KB)
- Webstreaming/Recordings
- Registration information (PDF - 455 KB)
- Transcription report (verbatim) (PDF - 308 KB)
- Biographies of the speakers (PDF - 226 KB)
-
Mr Peter Bárdy, Editor-in-chief of the news portal “aktuality.sk”
-
Mr Ladislav Hanniker, General Director of the Fight against Frauds and Risk Analysis Section, and Mr Lubomir Provaznik, Director of the Criminal Office, Financial Directorate of Slovakia
-
Mr Maros Zilinka, Head of the Economic Criminality Department of the Special Prosecutor Office, General Prosecutor's Office, and Mr Radovan Kajaba, Head of the Criminal Department of the General Prosecutor's Office
27-11-2018 17:15
Public hearing on "Alleged aggressive tax planning schemes within the EU"

Further to the hearing with multinational corporations held on 21 June 2018 at which McDonald’s and Nike Inc. participated, the TAX3 Committee decided to hold a second hearing on 27 November with the Kering Group, Google and Facebook.
- Draft programme of the hearing (PDF - 162 KB)
- Webstreaming / Recording
- Transcription report (verbatim) (PDF - 621 KB)
- Press release: Facebook, Google and Kering quizzed on aggressive tax planning
-
Sophie Maddaloni, Tax Director at the Kering Group
-
Adam Cohen, Head of Economic Policy, EMEA, Google
-
Alan Lee, Head of Global Tax Policy, Facebook

On Monday 26 November 2018, from 19.00 to 20.30, TAX3 together with the ECON Committee will hold a public hearing on “Cum-Ex scandal: financial crime and the loopholes in the current legal framework”. The purpose of this hearing is to examine the recent revelation of the CumEx files, which has shown that over EUR 55 billion have been defrauded through various schemes.
- Draft programme of the hearing (PDF - 57 KB)
- Webstreaming / Recording
- Extracts from the hearing
- Transcription report (verbatim) (PDF - 360 KB)
- Background note on the Cum-Ex case (PDF - 500 KB)
- Press release: Cum-ex tax fraud scandal: MEPs call for inquiry, justice, and stronger tax authorities
- European Parliament resolution of 29 November 2018 on the cum-ex scandal: financial crime and loopholes in the current legal framework (2018/2900(RSP))
- Biography of the speakers (PDF - 50 KB)
-
Gerhard Schick, Member and co-rapporteur of the former Bundestag Inquiry committee on the Cum Ex scandal
-
Christoph Spengel, ZEW Research Associate and the Chair of Business Administration and Taxation II at the University of Mannheim
-
Oliver Schröm, founder and head of the international collaboration of the project “The CumEx Files” and the Editor-in-chief of the German non-profit newsroom CORRECTIV
21-11-2018 09:15
Public hearing on “Combatting Money-Laundering in the EU Banking system”

In light of the recent serious allegations of money laundering involving some EU financial institutions, particularly Danske Bank and ING Groep, the TAX3 Committee has decided to hold a hearing on money laundering in banks on 21 November 2018 with a view to improving the financial supervisory system. This hearing is the second one that held by the TAX3 Committee on this particular matter.
A first part of the hearing of 21 November will be devoted to discussing with Danske Bank, ING Groep, the Swedish Bankers' Association, a whistle blower and an expert, recent serious accusations of money-laundering and how to effectively implement effective anti-money laundering policies internally within banks. The second part of the hearing will consist of an exchange of views with the European Banking Authority and the Commission about seamless cooperation between anti-money laundering and prudential supervisors in the EU and the role of the EBA in anti-money laundering supervision of the financial sector.
- Draft programme of the hearing (PDF - 371 KB)
- Webstreaming / Recording
- Transcription report (verbatim) (PDF - 633 KB)
- Press release: Money laundering in EU banks in the spotlight of special tax committee
- Extracts from the hearing
- Collection of multimedia items relevant to the topic
- Biographies of the speakers (PDF - 202 KB)
-
Howard Wilkinson, whistle-blower on Danske Bank
-
Stephen M. Kohn, counsel to Mr Wilkinson and expert in whistleblowing
-
Diederik van Wassenaer, Global Head of Regulatory and International Affairs of ING Bank NV, ING Groep
-
Jesper Nielsen , Interim CEO, Danske Bank
-
Åsa Arffman, Chief Legal Counsel, Swedish Bankers’ Association
-
Adam Farkas, Executive Director, European Banking Authority (EBA)
-
Martin Merlin, DG FISMA and Alexandra Jour-Schroeder, DG JUST, European Commission
15-10-2018 15:00
Golden visas and other national schemes providing tax privileges

On 15 October 2018, the TAX3 Committee will hold a public hearing on "Golden visas and other national schemes providing tax privileges (free ports, special economic zones)" consisting of two panels.
The second panel will cover the risks posed by freeports and special economic zones to the EU in the area of money laundering and tax evasion. An expert and a journalist specialised in money-laundering, tax evasion and tax avoidance will present their insights on the matter.
- Draft programme (PDF - 175 KB)
- Transcription report (verbatim) (PDF - 517 KB)
- Webstreaming / Recording
- Press release: Golden visas and free ports investigated by EP’s anti money-laundering committee
- Biographies of the speakers (PDF - 292 KB)
- Contribution letter from Philippe Dauvergne, CEO, Le Freeport Luxembourg (PDF - 1 MB)
-
Sergio Piazzardi, Policy Officer in charge of the Competitive Industry and Innovation Programme and of the Extractive Sector, DG DEVCO
-
Rachel Owens, Head of EU advocacy for Global Witness
-
Charles Carr, financial crime expert