Former Swiss Banker Linked to WikiLeaks Goes onTtrial

[Hissyspit]

Source: Reuters

Former Swiss banker linked to WikiLeaks goes on trial
Wed Jan 19, 2011 8:32am EST

By Emma Thomasson and Martin de Sa'Pinto

ZURICH (Reuters) - Former Swiss banker Rudolf Elmer admitted on Wednesday he sent private client data to tax authorities as he went on trial for breaching bank secrecy, but denied blackmail and a bomb threat against Julius Baer.

Elmer, 55, helped bring WikiLeaks to prominence three years ago when he went to the website with secret client information after Swiss authorities failed to act on data he said showed Baer, his former employer, helped clients dodge taxes.

"The ethics of business leadership on both sides of the Atlantic have disappointed me," he told the court, and said that he wanted to expose illegal activity in the Cayman Islands.

Elmer said Baer waged a campaign of "psychoterror" against him and his family and offered him 500,000 francs to keep quiet. He said he had never taken payments in return for secret data.

Read more: http://us.mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70H81N20110119?ca=rdt

[Turbineguy]

1. To Banks

there is nothing more dangerous than an ethical person with knowledge of what's really going on.

[midnight]

2. Touche.