![[Valid Atom 1.0]](valid-atom.png "Validate my Atom 1.0 feed")
BBC MUNDO RADIO
A former Swiss banker hands over documents to WikiLeaks that he alleges detail attempts by wealthy business leaders and lawmakers to evade tax payments.
Swiss banker linked to Wikileaks on trial over secrecy
Rudolf Elmer accuses the bank, Julius Baer, of persecuting him and his family A former Swiss banker is to go on trial in Zurich for breaching banking secrecy and threatening his former employer.
Rudolf Elmer, who headed Julius Baer's office in the Cayman Islands, is accused of stealing data and trying to extort money from the Swiss bank.
Mr Elmer says he did not breach Swiss banking laws, as the leaked documents referred to accounts in the Caymans.
On Monday, he gave Wikileaks website bank account details of individuals and firms he said were evading taxes.
Mr Elmer said the banks and international authorities had refused to help him show how tax avoidance by the wealthy affects welfare payments.
The founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, said he would publish the information within weeks, once it had been checked.
'Personal vendetta'Mr Elmer, a certified auditor, worked as Julius Baer's chief operating officer in the Cayman Islands until he was sacked in 2002.
He helped raise the profile of Wikileaks in 2007 after he leaked some of the bank's secret data about its clients to the whistle-blowing website.
Julius Baer says he waged a "personal intimidation campaign and vendetta" and sought to discredit the bank and its customers after it refused his demands for financial compensation following his dismissal.
The 55-year-old accuses the bank of persecuting him and his family, and of offering to pay him 500,000 francs not to expose a widespread system of tax evasion by rich businesspeople and politicians.
He has admitted breaking some laws, but claims he did not breach Swiss banking secrecy rules because all of the information related to the Cayman Islands and therefore lay outside Swiss jurisdiction.
The hearing is expected to last only one day. Prosecutors have asked for Mr Elmer to be sentenced to eight months in jail and fined 2,000 Swiss francs (£1,300; $2,080).
Switzerland's banking secrecy has come under heavy criticism in recent years. It has been forced to hand over details of 4,450 bank accounts to the US as part of a deal to settle an investigation into clients of UBS.
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário