Former Swiss banker linked to WikiLeaks goes on trial
Members of the media surround former Swiss private banker Rudolf Elmer (C) as he arrives before a trial at the regional court in Zurich January 19, 2011. Elmer, who handed over data on hundreds of offshore bank account holders to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at a news conference on Monday, is accused for breaching the bank secrecy of his former employer Swiss bank Julius Baer.
REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann
Members of the media surround former Swiss private banker Rudolf Elmer as he arrives before a trial at the regional court in Zurich January 19, 2011. Elmer, who handed over data on hundreds of offshore bank account holders to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at a news conference on Monday, is accused for breaching the bank secrecy of his former employer Swiss bank Julius Baer. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann
By Emma Thomasson and Martin de Sa'Pinto
(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.
But he admitted writing anonymous emails in 2005 threatening to send client details to tax authorities and the media if Julius Baer did not stop unspecified actions.
"The situation was very threatening. We were very scared and I thought the bank was behind it. That is why I sent the emails," Elmer told the court.
Wearing a black suit and a red shirt, Elmer also admitted charges that he sent client details to Swiss tax authorities, but he denied he made a bomb threat against the Zurich headquarters of his former company, threatened a Baer employee and tried to blackmail the bank.
WHISTLEBLOWER IMAGE?
Prosecutor Alexandra Bergmann said Elmer denied those charges because they contradicted an image as a whistleblower that he had only cultivated later in his dispute with Baer.
"The prosecution authorities see this whistleblower thing of the accused as pure rhetoric and a defense strategy, as something which he styled himself as only at a much later time after he left the bank," Bergmann told the court.
"While he was working on the Cayman Islands he didn't question the system as such."
Julius Baer, which has denied its Cayman branch was used for tax dodging, says Elmer waged a "campaign of personal intimidation and vendetta" against the bank after it refused his demands for financial compensation following his 2002 dismissal.
Elmer's lawyer Ganden Tethong Blattner said her client and his family had paid for standing up to a powerful opponent.
"This is the story of a man who discovered misdeeds and was under constant surveillance for more than a year. This great pressure was aimed at silencing him," she said.
Tethong Blattner accused Swiss prosecutors of uncritically adopting evidence provided by Julius Baer's private investigators without marking their own checks.
Prosecutors are asking for Elmer, who ran Baer's office in the Cayman Islands until he was fired in 2002, to be sentenced to an eight-month jail term and to pay a 2,000 Swiss franc ($2,083) fine. A verdict is expected later on Wednesday.
Elmer spent a month in investigative custody in 2005 when the charges were first made against him.
Wednesday's case does not concern his publication of bank data on WikiLeaks, but earlier alleged breaches of bank and corporate secrecy in Switzerland and threats against Baer.
About a dozen protesters from the left-wing Alternative Liste party gathered outside the court, holding up a banner, saying: "They want to hang Rudi, they let Kaspar off the hook," in a reference to UBS chairman Kaspar Villiger.
Switzerland was forced last year to give details of about 4,450 UBS accounts to U.S. authorities as part of a deal to settle a tax probe into its biggest bank despite strict secrecy laws. None of its bankers were prosecuted in Switzerland.
"We think those who expose the distasteful side of Swiss finance need our support," said protester Walter Angst.
Elmer, a certified auditor who also worked at Credit Suisse and KPMG, has argued Swiss bank secrecy should not apply, since the documents he leaked referred to accounts in Cayman.
Swiss bank secrecy has come under global attack in recent years, with neighboring Germany buying secret data from informants in its bid to track down tax evaders.
On Monday, the banker handed over compact discs he said contained information on some 2,000 offshore banking clients to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at a media event in London.
Prosecutor Bergmann said this showed Elmer had not learned his lesson and displayed disregard for the law and the court.
After Elmer used WikiLeaks to leak secret data, Julius Baer to launch a lawsuit against the website in 2008 but later dropped its bid to block the site after an outcry from free-speech advocates.
(Editing by Louise Ireland)
Credit: Reuters (www.reuters.com)
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