Something Wiki This Way Comes

Did I tell you how very, very much the United States government loves WikiLeaks? No? Why, how strange? Well, not every branch of the government loves WikiLeaks – the Departments of Defense and State are a tad sensitive these days – but I am told that the Treasury Department (particularly their Infernal… er… Eternal… er, ah… Internal Revenue Service) is downright giddy, both on the actual anticipated exposure and… even better… that nervous feeling that courses down the backs of the “yet undiscovered” U.S. taxpayers with miscreant secret Swiss Bank Accounts, a feeling that often acts as a deterrent to those contemplating tax evasion through such secret foreign accounts. I suspect more than a few “I represent the other spouse” divorce attorneys are equally interested in the revelations.

Why the joy? The January 17^th AOLNews.com explains: “A former Swiss banker [on Jan. 17^th] supplied anti-secrecy site WikiLeaks with two CDs containing account details on more than 2,000 high-profile politicians, celebrities, crime bosses and multinationals suspected of tax evasion… Swiss whistle-blower Rudolf Elmer -- the former chief operating officer of the Cayman Islands subsidiary for Swiss bank Julius Baer [spelled Julius “Bär” in German-speaking Switzerland] -- handed the discs to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at a press conference in London. The data relate to offshore bank accounts allegedly held by individuals and companies from across the world, including the U.S., U.K. and Germany, and covers 1990 to 2009.”

Oooh, how yummy! Wonder who else might be joining recently-convicted Wesley Snipes (you guessed it, on tax evasion) in a federal pen? Casting directors might have to open offices at these facilities, and MSNBC’s “Locked Up” series might have to start negotiating big-lettered, star billing in opening credits. Elmer himself is on trial in “we’ll buy those gold dental crowns, Mr. Hitler” Switzerland for violating that country’s criminal laws that protect such banking secrecy practices.

“The former banker is an experienced whistle-blower. Elmer worked at [private banking firm,] Julius Baer for a decade, but says he lost his job in December 2002 after raising concerns that the bank was helping some clients engage in criminal tax evasion… ‘After having tried in-house to resolve the issue,’ Elmer told the press conference, ‘I was fired.’… He spent the next three years attempting to persuade U.S. and Swiss authorities to intervene, and in 2005 he was sentenced to 30 days in a jail for violating Swiss banking secrecy.” AOLNews.com.

Clearly embarrassed, super-prestigious Julius Baer responded: “Bank Julius Baer, a 120-year-old institution that is usually noted for its intense privacy, said in a statement that it denied all wrongdoing and suggested that Mr. Elmer was pursuing a ‘vendetta’ to ‘discredit Julius Baer as well as clients in the eyes of the public.’…It accused him of using falsified documents, spreading baseless accusations and passing on ‘unlawfully acquired, respectively retained, documents to the media, and later also to WikiLeaks.’… WikiLeaks and Bank Julius Baer previously clashed in early 2008 when the antisecrecy organization published hundreds of documen ts 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.” New York Times, January 17^th.

Exactly what kinds of people are about to be exposed? “[Elmer] told The Observer newspaper over the weekend that those named in the documents come from ‘the U.S., Britain, Germany, Austria and Asia — from all over,’ and include ‘business people, politicians, people who have made their living in the arts and multinational conglomerates — from both sides of the Atlantic.’” NY Times. Now this is reality television! Who’s taping this… and can we have cameras at on those just as they find out that they are on the list?! Can this be real?

I’m Peter Dekom, and too much of a bad thing occasionally turns into a good thing????