Danske Bank Whistleblower Releases Slides from his EU Parliament Presentation

The full terms of Wilkinson’s restrictive NDA are disclosed

On November 21, 2018 Danske Bank whistleblower Howard Wilkinson testified before the European Parliament. His PowerPoint presentation has been made publicly available and is linked here: Money Laundering in the EU Banking Sector: what is failing?

For the first time the full contents of the nondisclosure agreement (NDA) restrictions placed on Mr. Wilkinson as part of his severance agreement have been made public.

According to statements by Danske Bank executives, these types of restrictions are common. Although difficult to confirm, we believe that Mr. Wilkinson’s testimony constitutes the first time a European bank whistleblower or employee has publicly disclosed the types of contractual restrictions that hinder whistleblowing at financial institutions and often permits crimes to go undetected for years.

The full contents of the restrictions placed on Mr. Wilkinson are set forth here:

AGREEMENT ON TERMINATION OF EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT

28 April 2014

Para. 5:

“The Employee indefinitely undertakes to keep the Employer’s banking, business and production secrets in confidentiality in the extent necessary for the protection of the Employer’s reasonable and legal interests (hereinafter “confidentiality obligation”). Employer’s business and production secrets means the business related information belonging to the Employer, the disclosure of which to third persons might significantly harm the Employer’s justifiable business interests, as well as information that is not publicly available or readily obtainable from outside sources, that is not subject to disclosure in accordance with the valid laws and that is disclosed to third persons only in confidentiality.

This includes but is not limited to “Business Secrets” and “Banking Secrecy” as defined in the Employment Contract, as well as any information pertaining to the ways Danske Bank is conducting its business in the Baltics. The confidentiality obligation also applies with regard to such information related to any company belonging to the same group with the Employer or any of their clients or business partners.”

Para. 9:

“[T]he Employee and the Employer therefore agree to be loyal against one another and act in each other’s reasonable interests. In particular, the Employee and the Employer agree not to reveal to any third party this agreement.”