The former Swiss banker Rudolf Elmer, who two days ago gave data Wikileaks 2,000 customers suspected of tax evasion, will attend a preliminary hearing today for the reading of the charges against him for violating bank secrecy, although previous facts unrelated to the case of leaks to the portal. Elmer faces a prison sentence of eight months and pay a fine of 2,000 Swiss francs (1,549 euros) for soliciting money in exchange for providing secret information on the accounts of several clients in the Cayman Islands, violating bank secrecy and business and threaten to several colleagues in the institution where he worked, the Swiss investment bank Julius Baer.A vendetta? On Monday, Elmer provided the founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, two hard drives with data from 2,000 customers who might commit a crime of tax evasion. The deposits belong to some 40 politicians and "pillars of society" and businessmen, "people who have made a fortune in the arts and multinational conglomerates in both sides of the Atlantic." Neither Assange not seem to know yet Wikileaks content delivered two computer disks and want to process the information very carefully before you spread it, probably within two weeks.
But in a press conference at the London Club Front, Assange and Elmer explained that contain data of covert operations carried out between 1990 and 2009 to avoid paying taxes. The data come from the accounts of three banks, including Julius Baer, and affect several countries, including USA, UK, Germany, Austria and some of Asia.
According to the Swiss, gave information to the portal after the Swiss and German authorities refused to investigate. For its part, the Julius Baer considers that the conduct of the banker is a "vendetta" by the refusal of the entity to pay the amount of compensation demanded after being fired in 2002.
Elmer says, with his family, has been the subject of a "campaign of intimidation" to accept a payment of 500,000 francs (387,289 euros) in exchange for his silence. It also argues that no violation of Swiss banking secrecy, as the Swiss authorities have no jurisdiction in the Caymans. It is not the first time Switzerland has problems in this field since last year Washington had to provide data of 4,450 bank customers in the framework of a tax investigation.
Germany also has turned to his neighbor for information on citizens suspected of evading taxes.
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