Swiss whistleblower Rudolf Elmer plans to hand over banking secrets and tax evasion of the 2000 rich individuals and corporations to WikiLeaks

Swiss whistleblower Rudolf Elmer plans to hand over banking secrets and tax evasion of the 2000 rich individuals and corporations to WikiLeaks



Who is Rudolf Elmer?
Rudolf Elmer is known as most important and boldest whistleblower in Swiss banking history.
He is a former chief operating officer in the Cayman Islands and employee of the powerful Julius Baer bank, which accuses him of stealing the information.
Elmer was a director at Bank Julius Baer in Cayman Islands


Rudolf Elmer will hand over the offshore bank account details of 2,000 "high net worth individuals" and corporations – detailing massive potential tax evasion.

Elmer says he is releasing the information "in order to educate society".
The list includes "high net worth individuals", multinational conglomerates and financial institutions – hedge funds", rich individuals and politicians.
They are said to be "using secrecy as a screen to hide behind in order to avoid paying tax".
They come from the US, Britain, Germany, Austria and Asia – "from all over".

British and American individuals and companies are among the offshore clients whose details will be contained on CDs presented to WikiLeaks at the Frontline Club in London. Those involved include “approximately 40 politicians".

Swiss whistleblower Rudolf Elmer is planning to handover to WikiLeaks two CDs containing data of around 2,000 bank clients who may have been evading taxes.
Elmer said that the data stems from at least three financial institutions and cover the period of 1990 and 2009.

The data is to be handed over on Monday, during a press conference in London.
The event will take place at the Frontline Club -- a media club where WikiLeaks operates in Britain -- from 11:15 am (1115 GMT).

Elmer was held in custody for 30 days in 2005, and is charged with breaking Swiss bank secrecy laws, forging documents and sending threatening messages to two officials at Julius Baer.

In 2008 Elmer has handed over list of 15 clients to Wikileaks.
But the names were not disclosed.
Elmer has been chased by the Swiss authorities and media since electing to become a whistleblower.

Regarding this information wikileaks told that "WikiLeaks will go through the data, and if they really deal with tax evasion, they will be published later."

Elmer's lawyer, Jack Blum says, "Elmer is being tried for violating Swiss banking secrecy law even though the data is from the Cayman Islands. This is bold extraterritorial nonsense. Swiss secrecy law should apply to Swiss banks in Switzerland, not a Swiss subsidiary in the Cayman Islands."

It’s said that Elmer will return to Switzerland from exile in Mauritius to face trial.
Rudolf Elmer has been ordered to appear before a Zurich regional court on Jan. 19 to answer charges of coercion and violating Switzerland's strict banking secrecy laws. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to three years in prison and fined.

Quotes by Rudolf Elmer –

If I had not worked in eight well known Offshore Centres and finally in Africa
I would not have discovered the biggest predatory theft in history of humanity
And its catastrophic consequences for the poorest people of the earth.

Whistle blowing should not be a money-making business but today it has to be one because a whistle blower will not find another reasonable job after having told the truth to society. Society turns the whistle blower into an outlaw.

Today, I am a culprit, a witness, a whistleblower, an activist and a reformer!



Updated on Wednesday, January 19, 2011

A judge at Zurich's Regional Court has sentenced Rudolf Elmer to a fine of over 6,000 Swiss francs ($6,000), judge found him guilty coercion and breaking Switzerland's strict banking secrecy laws.
Judge Sebastian Aeppli rejected prosecution demands to give Elmer an eight-month prison sentence.


Reality views by sm –
Monday, January 17, 2011