Elmer continues campaign against media
Rudolf Elmer, a former Julius Bär banker who is currently facing charges of violating banking secrecy, is suing *Die Weltwoche* and *Bilanz*. Among other things, these publications have called him a «data thief» and a «blackmailer.».
Elmer has achieved an interim success in both lawsuits. This is the result of court rulings published by the defendant on Wednesday. In the personal injury proceedings against Weltwoche, the Zurich District Court ordered the weekly newspaper to provide evidence to support its allegations. The Press Council had already come to the conclusion in July 2012 that Weltwoche should have at least mentioned Elmer Dementi before calling him a "thief" and "blackmailer" (Werbewoche.ch reported). The text also failed to mention that the ex-banker denied the allegations.
Elmer has also scored a small success in the defamation proceedings against Bilanz: The High Court decided that the proceedings, which were suspended today, should be resumed. The Zurich District Court must therefore once again deal with Elmer's accusations against the business magazine, which had reported critically about him. In February 2011, the court ordered the proceedings against Bilanz to be suspended until a legally valid verdict against the ex-banker had been reached.
No legally binding judgment yet
There is still no legally valid verdict in the Rudolf Elmer case. In November 2011, the High Court refused to hand down a verdict on the grounds that the indictment was incomplete. It sent the case back to the public prosecutor's office and demanded additions.
In January 2011, the Zurich District Court sentenced Elmer to a conditional fine of 240 daily rates of CHF 30 each for threats, attempted coercion and violation of banking secrecy. Both Elmer and the public prosecutor's office appealed the sentence.
Elmer was dealt the next blow on the evening of his conviction: on his way home from the trial, he was arrested again and remanded in custody for six months. The reason for this was an internationally acclaimed media conference just a few days before the Zurich trial, at which Elmer handed over several CDs to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Elmer stated at the time that these CDs contained data on around 2,000 tax evaders. It later transpired that the CDs were empty.
The former managing director of the Julius Baer branch on the Cayman Islands considers himself a whistleblower because he leaked client data to cantonal and federal tax authorities on several occasions - in the hope that the account holders would be punished as tax fraudsters. However, the data was not used. Switzerland is said to have lost around CHF 100 million in tax revenue as a result. (SDA/uma)
Teaser image: Rudolfelmer.com
