A Swiss bank whistleblower has given Wikileaks’ Julian Assange information on the secret accounts of 2000 prominent individuals just two days before he’s set to go to trial in Switzerland for breaking bank secrecy laws, the BBC reported Monday:
Wikileaks given data on Swiss bank accounts
Although it was not confirmed what activities might be covered by the data Mr Elmer has passed on, the Wikileaks head noted that previous data from Julius Baer provided by Mr Elmer had 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 favour”.The data covers multinationals, financial firms and wealthy individuals from many countries, including the UK, US and Germany, and covers the period 1990-2009, according to a report in Swiss newspaper Der Sonntag. (Read the whole story).
In 2008, the Julius Baer tried to shut down Wikileaks after Elmer’s had first leaked data to the website. The hearing took place in San Francisco and FAC was among a group of free speech organizations who successfully turned the tide in Wikileak’s favor:
After Public Citizen and a host of other groups–including the California First Amendment Coalition, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Project on Government Oversight, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation–presented their arguments, White seemed to have a change of heart. His written order dissolving the injunctions said he had concerns about whether the court had jurisdiction over the case and whether the injunction would even be halfway effective. The order said he also had concerns that an injunction could violate the free speech rights protected by the First Amendment. Read more: Swiss bank in Wikileaks case abruptly abandons lawsuit CNet News March 5, 2008
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Won’t be able to blame people for looking to fault somebody for any crisis.
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