The Huffington Post is reporting that ex-banker Rudolf Elmer of Switzerland has handed over discs of banking information about wealthy and high-profile celebrities to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at a news conference on Monday. Elmer headed the office of Swiss Bank Julius Baer in the Cayman Islands until he was fired in 2002. He is scheduled to go on trial in Switzerland on Wednesday for breaching bank secrecy.
Elmer handed Assange the data at a news conference at a media club in London. The two yellow and blue discs contain information about 2,000 banking clients who have parked money offshore. Elmer says that he wants people to understand how "the system works" and just how many wealthy people are abusing offshore financial centers to evade taxes. WikiLeaks will vet the information before releasing it.
While some are eagerly awaiting the data, we're wondering why. Elmer is doing something not only illegal but also unethical. Why give up this information now as opposed to 2002, when he was fired? Elmer clearly has an ax to grind because of questionable behavior and is taking others down in the process. Giving up the information in 2002 would make Elmer a "whistleblower." Waiting for almost a decade and then handing it over to a controversial organization like WikiLeaks suggests that he's just a guy with sour grapes.
Read more at the Huffington Post.
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