swiss banks have long held the gold standard for privacy and security. just hours ago, a swiss banking insider handed over private details for thousands of accounts to the web site wikileaks. we are live with details from london. what do the documents show? well, we don t know exactly what rudolph elmer, that swiss whistle-blower said that basically these are financial records for at least 2,000 clients. he wouldn t say whether they re individuals or corporations, but he says that there is evidence in there that shows of the possibility of tax evasion by certain by banks, possibly counseling their clients in may weighs that he says suggests they re trying to work around taxes. now, he has said he has his own suspicion that s this is illegal activity, but he doesn t know if this is evidence exactly.
been settled where the u.s. government where ubs eventually handed over the name of thousands of people that they suspected of evading taxes but only after quite a bit of a legal battle between the u.s. government and ubs and a lot of that information used in that legal battle came from whistleblowers like rudolph elmer. is he getting support? yes, he is. cnn s atika shubert at the frontline club here in london. we ll keep checking in with you and see whether he does name names and see whether julian assange will show up on a video conference. he is actually currently on bail in britain, and he is fighting an attempt to have him extradited to sweden. his next hearing is scheduled for february. prosecutors in sweden want him for questioning in connection with sexual misconduct allegations unrelated to wikileaks. you re watching world one live from london. thanks so much for joining me. i m zain verjee. we re going to leave you now
reporter: well, that s the question. what we understand is that a wikileaks representative will be here at the press conference to accept those documents. it s not clear who that person will be, but clearly assange is technically under house arrest outside of london, and so he likely will not be here. but there is some speculation as to whether or not he may make an appearance by video conference, for example. we ll just have to wait and see what happens. how much support does rudolph elmer actually have? what are people you re talking to saying about what he s doing? he is breaching swiss laws to do this? reporter: well, it is a banking secrecy laws. there has always been a lot of debate about just how effective it is having those laws considering that there is so much tax evasion. certainly the u.s. government has been trying to hunt down people who have evaded taxes, and they have used the information from people like rudolph elmer to try and track those individuals down. as y
reactions to our lead story, tunisia. wikileaks strikes again. the whistle blowing website says a swiss source will soon be handing over offshore banking secrets of the rich and famous. the man behind it is rudolph elmer. he describes himself as an activist and reformer who s worked at six offshore banking centers. he says he wants to challenge swiss banking secrecy at the european court of human rights and in swiss courts. let s find out more from atyoka shubert outside cnn s frontline club. is he going to name names here? what s his motive? that s the big question. i m actually inside the frontline club, where we are expecting that press conference to happen in a half hour. basically, what we expect is rudolph elmer, that swiss whistleblower will hand over documents to wikileaks.
i ll ask him some questions. other developing stories we re following for you right now. the army is trying to track down some people it owes money to. the service has about $160 million in its coffers that is meant to compensate soldiers caught up in the stop-loss, the involuntary extension of the troop s active duty. the policy was used widely a few years back as fighting in iraq heated up. there are 35,000 troops and family members that they haven t been able to find. wikileaks usually gets its information on the sly, but the recent data was handed over at a news conference. rudolph elmer handed over two disks worth of swiss banking records. he says he wants people to know how damaging the system is in the way it allows people and corporations to hide money. he was ousted and exiled 25 years ago to a mix of joy and