WikiLeaks to Release Secret Swiss Bank Account Info

Swiss whistle-blower and former banker Rudolf Elmer has given WikiLeaks information about bank accounts of more than 2,000 prominent individuals, potentially exposing tax evasion, the BBC reports.


The data is not yet available on WikiLeaks, but it was publicly given on two discs by Elmer to WikiLeaks founder and owner Julian Assange at a press conference in London this morning. The data needs to be vetted before it gets released, and some of it will likely be handed over to the authorities. “Once we have looked at the data… there will be full revelation,” said Assange.

AP WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, left, accompanied by Rudolf Elmer, right, 

listens to a journalist's question during a press conference at the Frontline Club in London on Monday.

The freshly leaked data covers the period from 1990 to 2009 and concerns companies and individuals from many countries, including the UK, U.S. and Germany, Swiss newspaper Der Sonntag reports. Elmer himself said at the press conference that the data covers info about three different banks and 40 politicians.

Rudolf Elmer - who runs his own whistle-blowing website -has previously worked in Swiss bank Julius Baer; he was fired from his position in 2002 and has previously leaked information to WikiLeaks about Julius Baer’s offshore operations at the Cayman Islands.

He is scheduled to go on trial in Switzerland in two days for breaking bank secrecy laws.