By Thomas Atkins
ZURICH (Reuters) -
Swiss bank Julius Baer denied on
Saturday claims by a Web site that its Cayman Islands branch
was used for tax avoidance schemes, one day after a U.S. judge
lifted an order that had shut down the site.
Wikileaks.org republished claims by a former Baer employee
and self-proclaimed whistleblower that the Zurich-based bank
used its international network to help clients avoid taxes
after the federal judge lifted the lockdown on free-speech
grounds.
Baer, however, said it hadn't broken any rules and that the
republished claims that the bank used its Cayman Island branch
for tax schemes were false.
"We reject that entirely. This is untrue," said spokesman
Martin Somogyi. "We have a subsidiary there and it acts
according to local law and is fully regulated."
The Baer case has received attention in Europe because of
Germany's assault on the tax haven Liechtenstein, the tiny
principality that shares a border and extensive financial ties
with Switzerland, home to many private banks that cater to the
very wealthy.
Baer said on Thursday that the documents posted on
Wikileaks.org alleged tax and money laundering schemes
involving Cayman Islands accounts. The bank said the documents
were falsified and it denied the claims made in them.
Somogyi said the claims were old, dating back to the 2002
theft of confidential client information by a former employee,
and that the documents had been in the public domain since at
least 2005.
Baer sued Wikileaks and web domain operator Dynadot earlier
this month after the site posted documents including bank
records of about 1,600 clients with accounts in a Baer
subsidiary in the Cayman Islands.
"Whatever was published on Wikileaks.org was forwarded to
several newspapers in 2005 and has been in the public domain
since then," Somogyi said.
"These are stolen and forged documents. They have been
manipulated in terms of names and dates."
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White honored Baer's request
and issued a permanent injunction on February 15 ordering
Dynadot, based in San Mateo, California, to disable the
Wikileaks.org domain.
But following an international free-speech backlash against
both the judge and Baer, and after arguments by attorneys from
the American Civil Liberties Union and other free-speech
groups, Judge White reversed his order on Friday.
White ruled that Baer could continue with its lawsuit
against the Web site, Wikileaks.org, and Dynadot LLC, the Web
site's domain-name registrar.
Baer spokesman Somogyi said that the bank acknowledged the
new ruling but declined to comment further on it.
(Reporting by Thomas Atkins; Editing by Dominic Evans)
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