News in Detail

WikiLeaks given Swiss bank account data

WikiLeaks has taken possession of discs containing the banking details of 2,000 prominent people with Swiss bank accounts. The discs were presented to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange today in London by former Swiss banker Rudolf Elmer. The data will be published by WikiLeaks once it has been vetted, a process expected by Assange to take at least two weeks.

Rudolf Elmer worked at Swiss bank Julius Baer, eventually becoming chief operating officer of its Cayman Islands subsidiary, until he was fired in 2002. During his time at the bank he claims he found evidence that the bank was helping its customers evade taxes. Since being fired, he has styled himself as a Swiss whistleblower, seeking to obtain and disseminate information about the Swiss banking industry. These actions saw him imprisoned in 2005—he spent 30 days in jail for breaking Swiss banking secrecy laws—and he is due to go on trial in Switzerland on Wednesday—again for breaking secrecy laws.

The data was provided to Elmer anonymously through his own whistle blowing website. He says that he felt it was important to identify himself as the source because of his banking background and knowledge.

Elmer has provided information to the whistle blowing site before. According to Assange, previous data concerning Julius Baer's activities shed light on tax evasion, the hiding of proceeds of criminal acts, and "the protection of assets of those about to fall out of political favor." Assange speculated that this new data might eventually be passed on to authorities such as the UK's Serious Fraud Office, as occurred previously in a WikiLeaks-published leak concerning Icelandic banks.

Julius Baer has dismissed Elmer's claims as baseless attempts to discredit the bank and its clients. It accuses him of both falsifying documents and sending death threats to its employees.