Whistle blower faces trial in Switzerland
(Bloomberg): A former Swiss banker whose actions caused a US judge to shut down WikiLeaks three years ago faces trial for allegedly distributing confidential documents showing how his former employer helped rich clients dodge taxes. Rudolf Elmer, a former employee of Swiss-based Bank JuliusBaer, has been ordered to appear before a Zurich regional court on 19 Jan to answer charges of coercion and violating Switzerland’s strict banking secrecy laws. Elmer said he will admit certain counts but insisted he didn’t break Swiss laws because the files belonged to a Julius Baer subsidiary in the Cayman Islands, where he worked for eight years.
"This data wasn’t subject to Swiss banking secrecy," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Monday.
If convicted he could be sentenced to up to three years in prison and a fine.
Swiss financial newspaper Cash was among those that in 2005 received a copy of a CD containing 170 megabytes of data on the Julius Baer’s Cayman operations. The files reportedly showed the bank helped its clients set up secret offshore accounts to avoid paying taxes.
Category: Business
What I wanna know is who wants to buy these backup tapes I walked away from my former employers office with ? They contain every company, SPV, Fund they setup along with a list of names of the ultimate beneficiary for each. Oh wait – cant sell them because I signed a non-disclosure, I’ll just give them away then.
Assuming for the moment that this is real, my first reaction would be that if you are willing to commit an act of theft by stealing from your employer (which wouldn’t surprise me, you low-life scum), then you wouldn’t be concerned with living up to your promises about the confidential information of your employer but would be wholly ready to try to profit from your crime.
That’s because you are dishonest. You are a thief, a common criminal who can’t be trusted by anyone, for anything. You suck and you are a jackass.
Am I getting through to you?
A grateful Germany sold him (and any future pawns) to Switzerland as a precondition of their TIEA. Rudy the whistle blower now faces an unpleasant future, and perhaps so will you one day. How much will your disgraced corpus be sold for, and by whom? Do you think pawns have any control when the stakes exceed the price of their butt?
His head, and those of any future "whistle blowers" were actually part of the TIEA negotiations between Germany and Switzerland.
A broke man he ain’t he has in fact been paid serious amounts of money by three different European Governments for his info. The reason he is moving may have to do with some of the perceived threats do to with his disclosure of information. He is out in the open at least many operating here undermining this islands economy are not but pose the same serious threat to our financial situation and position…
Having followed his smear campaign over the years, I can now finally say "here lies a broken man" … he’s relocated more times than a gypsy, his family life now in shambles, and apparently he is knocking on prison’s door.
Oh what a tangled rope we weave, when at first we learn to deceive !
So if he gets away with it in Switzerland, on the basis that he stole and distributed the information in Cayman, will we see the Attorney General launch the first ever prosecution under our Confidential Relationships Law? I’m not holding my breath
See wha ah tell una foreigners una caan trust una own people, una don know una much safer trusting Caymanians in this kind a thing, we used te this..
Having seen the Caymanian gossip network (aka the Marl Road) at work from the inside (my secretary was Caymanian), I can assure the readers that there is no such thing as secrecy in the Cayman Islands. Literally within one minute of something interesting being discovered, they have phoned 5 friends who have phoned 5 friends, who have dialed 5 friends …
I won’t post details, but the Caymanians know and share everything with each other without reservation. If I needed any information, my secretary knew someone in that department and would have the information in under 5 minutes.
There is no privacy nor secrecy in Cayman. You see the hints of it even on CNS by the posters who suggest that they know something they probably ought not know. They know, and so does every one else.
Please give it a rest. Gossip exists world wide, in every nationality/culture, and I am quite sure that you talk about "office" things with your friends who do not work for the same company.
Anyone who signs a confidentiality agreement and then is shown to have broken it can & should be prosecuted.
Well addressed, 10:12
Hi Ray:
"Anyone who signs a confidentiality agreement and then is shown to have broken it can & should be prosecuted."
I sort of agree with you, but we both know that no one has ever been prosecuted for violating the Confidential Relationships (Preservation) Law, ever. Not once.
Nor has any Caymanian ever been sued in Cayman for breach of confidence, ever.
My secretary reached into government agencies, insurance companies, hospitals and got back photos, medical records, police files and information that would be extremely difficult to get on-shore (none of the foregoing wasat my request). She just liked to stay "informed", and would sometimes send me things she thought was interesting. I was amazed at the stuff that came across.
I also know about litigation conducted in the Cayman Islands which was started using information literally stolen from a bank. The AG had no interest in prosecuting the CR(P)L offence despite being fully aware of it.
Sure, I swap gossip outside of the office, but nothing like the raw and extremely confidential data that flows around Cayman like water.
And based on your impartial observations it is only "Caymanians" that is involved in this situation. Even though you admit to gossiping about "office" stuff. That was the main point that was being pointed out to you.
Go back and read it again Anon: "…but nothing like the raw and extremely confidential data that flows around Cayman like water".
So you admit that you saw what you considered classified documentation and did not report this fact to the authorities. Very interesting. I think there is a legal term for that which I get the impression you may know.
Hey Ray:
The legal term is "I was an expat and knew better than to challenge a group who could terminate my residency at will, for the sake of reporting the matter to a government who would do nothing but deport me for the effort".
The corruption of the island stunk so I left on my own terms, thanks just the same. As an expat I had no standing whatsoever to deal with the corruption that underpins Cayman, nor frankly the interest in trying to fix something that Cayman doesn’t think is broken.
The point is simply that whatever you think is confidential in Cayman isn’t, so let’s not pretend that it is.
I am not quite sure what point you are trying to make. You state yourself that you have used this (via your secretary) to your advantage, so what are you trying to say now?!
It is funny how everyone is complaining about the Cayman marl road, until they would like to get a piece of info that my be adventagous to them….
I made no complaints, I just pointed out the truth about Cayman and the lack of privacy. It is what it is, but let’s not pretend that Cayman is a bastion of confidentiality fending off the assault of external inquieries, such as the first poster was suggesting.
Fair enough, but the way you came across is that this is only an issue in Cayman. Complete confidentiality isn’t maintained anywhere. Whoever believes otherwise has their head stuck in the sand. The only difference is that due to the small population, you more likely to find out if someone is gossiping about you (or someone else).
That is a ridiculously stupid comment and I am embarrassed to be a Caymanian when I read comments (like that) of an adult written like a 2nd grader! You and people like you are the reason Caymanians are deemed as uneducated. Why don’t you write like an adult and your opinion may be heard by more people!