Former Swiss Banker Collapses During WikiLeaks Data Trial

Rudolf Elmer, the former employee of Julius Baer Group Ltd. accused of revealing details of client accounts via WikiLeaks, collapsed at the start of his trial, forcing the court to postpone the case.

It was not clear when the trial in Zurich District Court would continue. Proceedings had been under way less than two hours when Elmer collapsed during a recess after repeatedly telling the judges he wasn’t feeling well. He was taken by ambulance to a hospital.

Elmer, 59, is accused of violating the country’s financial secrecy laws in a campaign to raise awareness of the use of Swiss bank accounts for illegal activity including tax evasion. Prosecutors are seeking a prison sentence of three and a half years for Elmer, who also allegedly offered bank data to the German government and fabricated a letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel from the Swiss bank, advising her to close an account.

Elmer said today that the fictitious letter, which he uploaded on WikiLeaks, was a way for him to test the site before he added bona fide information, including the names of actual Julius Baer clients.

“The accused led a very versatile and persistent fight against Julius Baer,” Prosecutor Peter Giger said in a court document dated June 30.

While such cases are not uncommon in Switzerland, where for almost a century the principle of bank secrecy has been enforced by laws that carry prison terms for offenders, Elmer’s trial has attracted more attention than most. That’s partly because the bank data transfer involved a website that has drawn the ire of the U.S. and other governments around the world, for publishing confidential documents under an avowed commitment to increased transparency.

Ambulance Called

Elmer, appearing before a courtroom packed with about 40 observers, looked unshaven and was wearing a blue hoodie. He refused to answer questions about his personal situation, including about his income and his children. At one point, he asked for a break, complaining of a headache, and was allowed to step out for a few minutes.

Elmer worked at a unit of Julius Baer in the Cayman Islands until 2002. He allegedly uploaded data to WikiLeaks from as early as 2007. In January 2011, he gave two compact discs to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at a press conference in London. He said today that the discs were empty.

The former banker was detained in January 2011 and held for about five months on a judge’s order after prosecutors argued that he might tamper with evidence. He has continued to campaign against an offshore banking network that he says enables wealthy people to hide money from authorities.

Countries including the U.S., the U.K. and Germany have used testimony from former Swiss bankers or stolen client data to pursue offshore tax dodgers. Under pressure, the Swiss government has agreed to implement international automatic tax information-sharing arrangements, and its banks have cooperated with foreign probes in a bid for leniency.

The case comes amid public demands for greater protection of bank secrecy. The Swiss may vote on new measures to preserve the tradition after a petition sponsored by three political parties gathered more than the 100,000 signatures required to force a referendum on the question.

The trial began with his lawyer, Ganden Tethong, asking the three judges to drop the charges related to WikiLeaks, arguing that the statute of limitations had expired. Reading from a prepared statement, Elmer said he uploaded a letter he fabricated that purports to be from the bank to Merkel “to test WikiLeaks” in 2007. Once that letter was published, he uploaded additional material, he said.

“I am not feeling well,” he said several times in response to initial questioning from the presiding judge.

Switzerland has witnessed several bank secrecy trials in recent years. A former Julius Baer contractor was sentenced in August 2013 to three years in prison for breaking the laws. In 2011, a Swiss court convicted a former Credit Suisse Group AG employee of business espionage and of violating bank secrecy and handed out a fine and a suspended sentence.

Herve Falciani, a former information technology worker at HSBC Holdings Plc’s private bank in Geneva, became a fugitive from the Swiss government after he allegedly stole information from the bank in 2008 and shared it with France.