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Swiss Banker Spills Secrets to WikiLeaks

   VOA News  17 January 2011
   Former  Swiss  banker Rudolf Elmer hands two CD cases full of files to
   WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, left, following a news conference at
   the Frontline Club in London, 17 Jan 2011

Photo: AP

   Former  Swiss  banker Rudolf Elmer hands two CD cases full of files to
   WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, left, following a news conference at
   the Frontline Club in London, 17 Jan 2011

   A  former Swiss banker on Monday handed over to WikiLeaks thousands of
   documents  containing  the  secret  banking  details  of  politicians,
   multinationals  and  hedge  funds using banking havens to avoid paying
   taxes.
   Rudolf  Elmer  handed the disks with the information over to WikiLeaks
   founder  Julian  Assange,  who  said his website will publish the data
   after  having  verified  it.  The handover took place at the Frontline
   Club in London.
   Assange said it would be weeks before the information could be checked
   and  published,  and  that  his  team  could  also  hand over relevant
   information to Britain's Serious Fraud Office.
   Elmer  began gathering the information while he worked at the offshore
   Cayman   Island   trust   subsidiary  of  Bank  Julius  Baer,  one  of
   Switzerland's top private banks. He no longer works with the bank.
   He said the disks held data from 1990 to 2009 on some 2,000 clients of
   the  bank,  and  claimed  that  Switzerland's banking secrecy laws are
   "damaging" society.
   Elmer  is scheduled to appear in a Swiss court Wednesday on charges of
   violating Swiss bank secrecy laws.
   Assange  said  the  WikiLeaks website will publish all the information
   contained  in the files. Assange is under house arrest while he fights
   an extradition to Sweden on allegations of sexual assault.