WikiLeaks' editor Julian Assange has hinted that the next information dump from his whistle-blowing site could deal with a U.S. bank. Now a former Swiss bank executive Rudold M. Elmer has claimed to have given Assange details about illegal activities of more than 2,000 high-profile individuals, the The Guardian's Observer is reporting.
Elmer oversaw the Caribbean branch of Swiss bank Julius Baer for eight years until he was dismissed in 2002. The former banker presented documents on two discs to Assange at the Frontline Club in London on Monday, before he returns to his native Switzerland to stand trial. He's accused of breaking secrecy laws of Switzerland's notoriously clandestine banks, falsifying documents, and threatening two Julius Baer officials.
"The aim of [Elmer's] activities was, and is, to discredit Julius Baer as well as clients in the eyes of the public," said a statement Julius Baer issued Friday. "With this goal in mind, Mr. Elmer spreads baseless accusations and passed on unlawfully acquired, respectively retained, documents to the media, and later also to WikiLeaks. To back up his campaign, he also used falsified documents."
In the past, Elmer leaked financial documents to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS). With WikiLeaks, he said he hopes to "educate society" about a corrupt financial system.
The documents Elmer has handed over to WikiLeaks detail the activities of "high net worth individuals" and corporations, including "approximately 40 politicians." Elmer said that the people implicated in the documents hail from "the U.S., Britain, Germany, Austria, and Asia – from all over" and they hold various occupations.
"What I am objecting to is not one particular bank, but a system of structures," Elmer told theObserver. "I have worked for major banks other than Julius Baer, and the one thing on which I am absolutely clear is that the banks know, and the big boys know, that money is being secreted away for tax-evasion purposes, and other things such as money-laundering – although these cases involve tax evasion."
Assange said that WikiLeaks will verify the information that Elmer ceded to the organization, and that the leak could be released within the next two weeks. However, the names of those implicated in the documents will not be made public.
Assange is facing legal troubles of his own, stemming from rape charges filed in Sweden by two former WikiLeaks volunteers. Currently free on bail in London, he will appear in court early next month for an extradition hearing.
The U.S. government is also pursuing legal action against the 39-year-old Australian for his part in WikiLeaks' publishing of more than 250,000 secret U.S. diplomatic cables.
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