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Court Orders Whistleblower Site Shut Down Over Money Laundering, Fraud Documents
By Brian Orsak
printA Swiss bank's efforts to remove confidential, internal documents from a whistleblower Web site serves as a cautionary tale to financial institutions about the dangers of trying to suppress bad publicity. Bank Julius Baers sued Wikileaks.org and its San Mateo, Calif.-based domain registrar, Dynadot LLC, on Feb. 6, claiming the organizations violated bank privacy laws by publishing hundreds of documents online that detail the private accounts of bank clients. The documents purportedly show evidence of money laundering and fraud through an offshore branch of the bank. Wikileaks, a site that encourages whistleblowers to post damaging documents, said that a Bank...
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I've always found it offensive when tabloids use terms like "rat" or "squealer" to describe the actions of those who report or testify about criminal behavior. It's no less offensive when one of the terms is used in defense of attorney-client privilege.
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Swiss bank Julius Baer Holding AG had sued to have Wikileaks permanently shut down for allegedly posting hundreds of leaked customer documents. The documents purportedly showed that accounts were used to launder money for political figures and businessmen in China and Europe.