Jack Blum’s Client Goes to Wikileaks - EmptyWheel

[WillyT]

Jack Blum’s Client Goes to Wikileaks
By: emptywheel Sunday January 16, 2011 7:25 am

<snip>

A man about to go on trial in Switzerland for breaking that country’s secrecy laws has promised to give details of 2,000 individuals and corporations who are hiding their money in offshore accounts to Wikileaks tomorrow.

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.

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, who after his press conference will return to Switzerland from exile in Mauritius to face trial, 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.

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.

“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.”

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. After Blum’s Senate investigation of BCCI got too close to the Democratic fixer Clark Clifford, he was fired; he had to bring his work to NY’s DA and the press to reveal what he had found.

<snip>

More: http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2011/01/16/jack-blums-client-goes-to-wikileaks/

:kick:

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. This is getting good.

No shelter for the corrupt and greedy.

[WillyT]

6. Yep... I Wonder If Assange Is Gonna Wait On His Bank Leak...

until after this one is digested, or if he's gonna put out his also, as sort of a one, two, punch?

:shrug:

:hi:

[Cleita]

2. BCCI a name from the past and apparently not so

past it seems. Link here for those not familiar with BCCI http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Credit_and_Commerce_International

:popcorn:

[blm]

15. BCCI is at the root of almost all the global evil going on today...

And THAT is why so many of the BFEE's powerful elite (including a few famous Democrats) remain aligned against those books ever being opened and have consistently undermined those who worked to uncover its crimes and its agenda.

[karynnj]

16. Leave it to FDL, to write of Blum, without mentioning that he worked for Senator Kerry

They could also have mentioned that Blum appeared before the Finance committee to speak of the money hidden in the Cayman Islands. (The discussion between Blum and Kerry was very interesting - http://finance.senate.gov/hearings/hearing/?id=dc916802-f9b8-0603-029f-eb2748e4c960

In addition, they could have mentioned that the reason the BCCI investigation ended was the committee ended and Kerry no longer had subpoena power, which is why after to trying to get the Justice Department to act - they took everything they had to Morgenthau.

[WillyT]

19. They Also Could Have Mentioned That He Likes Scampi, And Long Walks On The Beach...

Trying to understand the hostility here.

Did you know Blum was representing Rudolf Elmer until you read the OP ?

And did you click on the link ? Marci Wheeler, who scooped the snot out of the MSM by blogging the Scooter Libby Trial, has an extended excerpt by Blum for a Book Review for Huffington Post.

FDL, Marci Wheeler, nor I, nor you, should pimp for the Democratic Party. We should praise them when they get it right, and slam them when the get it wrong.

They work for us... at least that's the fairy tale we've been told.

:shrug:

[karynnj]

24. The article makes the case that he led on investigating

this - in spite of PTB fighting it every step of the way. There is no question that Blum is an exceptional investigator, who did a brilliant job, BUT the fact is that this was a Senate investigation and without Kerry fighting for 5 years to continue the work, it would have ended earlier.

Whether he likes scampi or not is completely irrelevant. Your reaction is over the top - as all I said was "leave it to FDL" - and you rattle off her credentials. The fact is that in various times Blum has spoken of the investigation, he has always given Kerry enormous credit for pushing on. What you ignore is that Kerry was the one who took the real risk in pushing the investigation. He had the public career that could have been damaged.

As to yours (and Marci Wheeler's ) criterion BCCI was a case where Senator Kerry deserves mention. By suggesting that Blum was "fired" when things got too close - Marci ignores that Clifford WAS brought before the committee and grilled. Saying he was "fired" suggests the committee then went on without him and (implicitly) whitewashed things to avoid going after Clifford.

I did know that he was representing Elmer (and another leaker of similar information) and I had heard him discuss the broader issue Before the Finance committee back on July 24, 2008 - and in fact, I can claim to have blogged about that on DU - in the JK group. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=273&topic_id=150707

That Ms Wheeler blogged the Scouter Libby trial actually is more deserving of the "he likes scampi" reference.

I guess it's too bad that someone you like - like Grayson - was not the leader on this.

[WillyT]

25. My Apologies If I Was OTT...

I've just had enough of the FDL bashers here.

And maybe Marci Wheeler assumed that most people know of Jack Blum's (and Senator Kerry's) record on BCCI.

That's perhaps why it was such a cryptic title, 'Jack Blum’s Client Goes to Wikileaks'.

I'm not that well versed in the BCCI Scandal, and I'll bet many a DUer are not. That's why I found Wheeler's piece interesting/informative and posted it here.

:shrug:

:hi:

[karynnj]

26. No apology was needed

I may well have over reacted - as FDL does have its favorites -- and those they irrationally always look for a reason to dislike. Here, it just seemed weird not to state that he was Kerry's lead investigator - and because I was not happy with the "fired", which - knowing he worked for Kerry, would imply that Kerry was the one who fired him.

The other reason for mentioning it was that he was one of the people who testified a the Finance committee as recently as a year and a half ago when they were attempting to improve the laws on this. This means he has excellent contacts in the Senate and he is working this from both the legislative side and representing people with information. (Baucus and Kerry did write a provision that was included in one of the Jobs bills passed this fall (to pay for it) legislation that made it harder to take money off shore and hide it.

The latter is important because it means that someone who knows the right people might have a better chance to get the list vetted and acted upon than someone who did NOT have strong connections. (From the hearing, it was clear that he and Kerry were on the same page - their back and forth was fascinating which each expanding the others points. )

[blm]

30. An ongoing problem with Dems and DU... they mostly ignore those crucial hearings because corpmedia

makes SURE the hearings get little to no coverage. As much as DUers complain about the media, many here LET the media get away with setting the agenda for what stories they follow.

[pacalo]

3. Emptywheel delivers again. After reading Blum's impressive background, it says volumes about

the extent of corruption in Washington when he trusts only WikiLeaks to expose this significant case of tax evasion -- probably by the very ones who want to make cuts to programs that affect the less fortunate ones to balance their military-bloated budget.

[WillyT]

4. + 1,000,000,000... What You Said !!!

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

:hi:

:kick:

[pacalo]

5. ...

:toast:

[annabanana]

7. Emptywheel is one of my all-time favorite

online people! She got me during the Libby trial.

[fascisthunter]

8. I would have thought more DUers would be interested in this

[WillyT]

11. Me Too...

But I guess it's clips, nips, and small tips.

(Translation: gun magazines, circumcision, breast-feeding, and Olive Garden)

:shrug:

[fascisthunter]

12. LOL....

[howaboutme]

9. We need to break the back of the corrupt rich and special

interests and it will only happen when their names are made public and their reputations ruined.

I don't give a damn if they are life long Democrats, or Fox News finatics, or Obama supporters, or George Bush Rangers.

We need to eliminate those who use their money to corrupt the system and they are the scourge of the Earth IMHO.

Who are these people who send their ill gotten earnings to Swiss banks to avoid taxes? Let us know their names regardless of their connections or politics.

[WillyT]

10. + 1,000,000,000... What You Said !!!

:applause::applause::applause:

:kick:

:hi:

[WillyT]

13. Kick !!!

:kick:

[Overseas]

14. K&R ! //nt

[Jack Rabbit]

17. Musical Interlude in honor of Julian Assange and Wikileaks

Please click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3V8EznD4Jo">here.

[Oilwellian]

18. So Elmer doesn't trust our media

Imagine that. I'm happy to hear Blum is his lawyer. This could get very interesting.

[Oilwellian]

20. Video of press conference available now

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/frontline-club

[WillyT]

22. Thank You For That !!!

:hi:

:kick:

[Oilwellian]

23. My pleasure

I'm listening now. :hi:

They just said an estimated $20 trillion is being hidden in offshore accounts. Holy shit!

[blm]

31. wish it had more eyeballs from the left

.

[DearAbby]

21. Juicy!

K&R

[Kaleko]

27. This case has the potential to become a bombshell one-two punch against the banking cartel

with the help of WikiLeaks and the right kind of international publicity.

I'm trying to find out everything I can about Elmer and other major players involved.

The NYT published an article with some good info today:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/business/global/18baer.html?_r=2&hp

On Monday, Mr. Elmer declined to say how he had obtained the documents. He was detained for 30 days in 2005 in connection with allegations that he falsified documents, violated Swiss banking secrecy laws and tried to coerce his former employers by threatening to disclose information. He faces trial in Switzerland on Wednesday, said his Swiss lawyer, Ganden Tethong Blattner, for the latter two charges and faces a possible sentence of eight months’ probation and a fine of $8,200.

WikiLeaks and Bank Julius Baer had previously clashed in early 2008 when the anti-secrecy organization published hundreds of documents pertaining to its offshore activities. The bank succeeded, briefly, in gaining a court order to shut down the WikiLeaks.org Web site. The injunction was subsequently overturned and the case was dropped.

--- snip ----

Still, Mr. Assange said in London on Monday, financial institutions usually “operate outside the rule of law” because of their economic power. WikiLeaks itself has been “economically censored,” he said, by companies like Visa and MasterCard, which stopped processing donations to it late last year in response to its release of hundreds of thousands of classified United States documents on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and thousands of State Department cables.

WikiLeaks, perhaps signaling a new focus, has also said it would release information from an American bank, thought to be the contents of a Bank of America executive’s hard drive, early this year. But, Mr. Assange said, the site is not fully “open for public business” owing to the weight of the existing leaks it is struggling to process.

[blm]

29. I doubt MSM will give it the coverage needed. Wouldn't during BCCI. Wouldn't for Downing St Memos.

.

[Jack Rabbit]

28. Another kick

It's class warfare and this time we're fighting back.

[bobthedrummer]

32. UPDATE: Court hands whistle-blower suspended fine (1-19-11 SwissInfo)

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/Court_hands_whistle-blower_suspended_fine.html?cid=29286464