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London - WikiLeaks is planning a full disclosure of confidential bank details of about 2 000 prominent individuals supplied by a former Swiss banker in an attempt to expose "mass tax evasion," Julian Assange said in London Monday.
The founder of the self-proclaimed whistleblowing website, who is currently on bail in Britain pending extradition proceedings to Sweden on alleged sex offences, said the information would be thoroughly checked before publication in a few weeks' time.
"Once we have looked at the data ... there will be full revelation," Assange told a news conference in London, where two discs containing the details were handed to him by Rudolf Elmer, a former Swiss banker turned whistleblower.
Elmer, a former executive at the Cayman Islands branch of Julius Baer Bank, one of Switzerland's top private banks, said he was releasing the information to "educate society."
He said he wanted to expose the "mass tax evasion" before the start of his own trial in Switzerland on Wednesday for breaking Swiss secrecy laws.
Elmer, who was fired from the Swiss bank in 2002, already handed confidential information to WikiLeaks in 2008.
"I'm against the system. I know how the system works ... a sophisticated network exists to funnel illicit money into secret offshore accounts," he said.
Elmer would not name the individuals or companies involved, though he said they included some 40 politicians, as well as businessmen and multinational conglomerates from Britain, the United States, Germany, Austria, Asia and "all over."
The data covers multinationals, financial firms and wealthy individuals and spans the period between 1990 and 2009, the Swiss newspaper Sonntag reported.
Analysts in London said the promised disclosures could be "potentially dynamite," as the names of a number of celebrities appeared to be included.
Assange said it was likely that WikiLeaks would hand over some of the information to the authorities - as had been the case with a previous leak concerning Icelandic banks.
He specifically mentioned Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) as one of the organizations expected to become involved in subsequent investigations.
Elmer said he had offered his information to politicians and universities in Europe and the US but they had all refused to become involved.
He specifically mentioned a letter he had written to Peer Steinbrueck, a former German finance minister, to which he never received a reply.
Elmer said he had been offered "a lot of money" for his information, but his conscience had not allowed him to accept such deals.
There had also been attempts to "buy his silence" by offering to drop the charges against him, alleged Elmer, who spent 30 days in a Swiss jail.
He and his family had faced pressure akin to "fire-breathing dragon with several heads," said the ex-banker.
"I do think as banker I have the right to stand up if something is wrong," said Elmer.
