On 21 October 2020 assassinated Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was posthumously awarded the 2020 Allard Prize for International Integrity, a prestigious global prize for people who demonstrate exceptional leadership and courage in protecting human rights. For more on this prize see: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/award/1f084460-a5ea-11e7-8132-af7bdbf76e65
Caruana Galizia was co-awarded the prize last night along with Howard Wilkinson, the man who blew the whistle on the Danske Bank money laundering scandal.
Both Caruana Galizia and Wilkinson were awarded $50,000 prizes and the assassinated journalist’s family has dedicated their prize money to the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation.
Andrew Caruana Galizia virtually accepts the prize on his late mother’s behalf
Virtually accepting the prize on his late mother’s behalf, Andrew Caruana Galizia said that such prizes shouldn’t be viewed as frivolous but crucial in ensuring the fight for justice lives on. “We know there’s a connection between remembering and justice. If we forget the people who were murdered, the human rights activists and journalists who lost their lives fighting for our right to know, to live in a democracy and enjoy other rights, then no one will remember to fight for justice.”
Co-winner Howard Wilkinson blew the whistle on the largest money laundering scheme in history, worth at least $230 billion, while acting as the head of Danske Bank’s trading unit in the Baltics. On September 19, 2018, news broke of the money laundering scheme that moved rubles out of Russia, converted them to dollars at the Estonian branch of Danske Bank, and then moved the dollars to New York with the assistance of three correspondent banks (Bank of America, J.P Morgan, and Deutsche Bank). Danske Bank admitted all of its internal controls designed to prevent money laundering had failed. The bank revealed that the scheme had been reported to the bank’s highest levels by a whistleblower over four years before. The whistleblower’s identity was required to be secret. But it took only days for Wilkinson’s name to leak out.
The Allard Prize website states: “Despite the considerable risk to himself and his family, Wilkinson testified before the European Parliament and advocated for greater protections for whistleblowers and a new regulation model that encourages greater transparency. The scandal led to numerous investigations and criminal charges across Europe, Danske’s CEO’s resignation, and Danske’s Estonian branch’s closing.”
When accepting the award, Wilkinson said, “Whistleblowers are the most loyal employees at all. The whole point of whistleblowers is to make things better.”
Wilkinson was profiled by Whistleblower News Network as its “Whistleblower of the Week” weekly feature on October 19.
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 
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