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Wiki-whistleblowers?

January 17, 2011

If folks with hidden offshore bank accounts didn't have enough to worry about, what with IRS success in breaching Swiss bank secrecy, they now may have another reason to lose sleep. There are reports (see here and here) that a Swiss banker has turned over 2,000 names of customers of the Swiss bank Julius Baer to Wikileaks.

Julian Assange, the Wikileaks operator, has had all sorts of legal trouble for posting secret diplomatic cables on his site. Diplomatic secrets are one thing; secret bank accounts are much more serious. It will be interesting to see whether private efforts succeed in shutting down Mr. Assange where government efforts have failed.

Offshore tax evasion isn't getting any safer. Folks with offshore accounts may want to discreetly contact a good attorney to get things right while it's still optional.

Tags: banking secrecy.Swiss banks.tax crime.Wikileaks.