First, from The Guardian, we find this:
The offshore bank account details of 2,000 “high net worth individuals” and corporations – detailing massive potential tax evasion – will be handed over to the WikiLeaks organisation in London tomorrow by the most important and boldest whistleblower in Swiss banking history, Rudolf Elmer, two days before he goes on trial in his native Switzerland.That's already riveting, and I can't wait. But Marcy Wheeler adds this, from her treasure trove of research and background info:
British and American individuals and companies are among the offshore clients whose details will be contained on CDs presented to WikiLeaks at the Frontline Club in London. Those involved include, Elmer tells the Observer, “approximately 40 politicians”.
Elmer ... is a former chief operating officer in the Cayman Islands and employee of the powerful Julius Baer bank, which accuses him of stealing the information. ... "Once you become part of senior management," he says, "and gain international experience, as I did, then you are part of the inner circle – and things become much clearer. You are part of the plot. You know what the real products and service are, and why they are so expensive. It should be no surprise that the main product is secrecy … Crimes are committed and lies spread in order to protect this secrecy."
That’s interesting enough. But I’m equally interested because of who Elmer’s lawyer is: Jack Blum. Blum explains why Elmer has resorted to leaking this to Wikileaks.Wheeler adds, "Calling Blum, 'one of America’s leading experts in tracking offshore money' doesn’t convey the degree to which Blum’s investigations–perhaps most famously of BCCI–exposed the ties of the very powerful to corrupt money." Ah, yes; BCCI. The big one.“My understanding is that my client’s attempts to get the banks to act over various complaints he made came to nothing internally,” says Elmer’s lawyer, Jack Blum, one of America’s leading experts in tracking offshore money. “Neither would the Swiss courts act on his complaints. That’s why he went to WikiLeaks.”
And last, here's more about Blum, again thanks to Wheeler. The source is something he wrote for Huffington Post. Just a taste (Wheeler has more, as does Blum himself):
When I came to Washington 45 years ago to work as an investigator for the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee, a senior investigator with years of experience told me that the beginning of any good investigation was a clear understanding of the players. “Everyone you will look at has a history,” he explained. “They will have mentors and sponsors. They will have networks of political and business connections. They will play many roles. If you understand those, everything else will fall into place.”Blum's article is a review of a recent book about the "shadow elite" behind the current mortgage crisis, the interlocking network of players who've worked together from positions in banking, government and think tanks and who are "involved in each of the succeeding cycles of [mortgage] fraud." The name Citibank comes up.
Wheeler's last line: "It says something, I think, that the client of a guy who has gone to such lengths to expose the corrupt money running our world is going to Wikileaks."
There's more in all three places, and I recommend reading them in order — the Guardian story about tomorrow's WikiLeak leak; Marcy Wheeler's smart teasing of the implications; and Blum's Huff Post piece.
This WikiLeaks thing is turning out rather well for us Littles, isn't it. The Bigs are having a fit. It sure would be nice if someone backed that thing up. And I don't mean back up the data; I mean back up the org.
GP Read the rest of this post...
