Black money in Swiss banks mainly from India: Julian Assange
ET Bureau Apr 27, 2011, 03.43am IST
Tags:
wikileaks|Switzerland
NEW DELHI: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Tuesday said there was
more Indian money in Swiss banks than any other nationality, sparking
off renewed demands from the Opposition for disclosure of the names of
account holders and bringing back black money.
"Yes, there are Indian names in the list," Assange told a television channel.
Assange disclosed that he was being offered a swap deal for handing
over the details of Swiss banks and their secret account holders list.
He said WikiLeaks had an offer through a third party that if it
returned the data, then whistleblower Judith Elmer would be set free.
He revealed this when asked when the information will come out as
peopple across India have been waiting to know.
"Well, let me tell you what has happened in relation to that.
Normally, we only deal with anonymous sources. Mr Elmer and his legal
team for reasons of their own, which I do not understand, decided to
have a public press conference. He then returned to Switzerland and
was immediately imprisoned. While an investigation is taking place he
is still in prison at this moment. "He has not as far as I am aware
been charged with anything. He is still simply in prison during the
period of investigation. And we have had an indirect offer through a
third party that if we return what they believe to be the data then
they will work to acquit Mr. Elmer to be free. So my ability to talk
about this subject is of course limited by the fact that the Swiss
bank has a hostage," Assange said.
He also expressed concern about Indians depositing billions of black
money in foreign locations having a cascading impact on the economy.
"The Indian government needs to be more aggressive in tracking the
black money stashed in foreign banks since Indians depositing money in
foreign banks is debasing the rupee," he said. The BJP immediately
trained its guns at the government saying its efforts to address the
black money issue were found wanting.
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