BID TO EXTEND RULES REJECTED

SWITZERLAND’S highest court ruled yesterday that prosecutors could not extend Swiss banking secrecy rules to all corners of the globe to pursue whistleblowers. In a case drawing international scrutiny, the Federal Supreme Court by a 3-2 majority rejected an appeal by Zurich prosecutors in the case involving former private banker Rudolf Elmer, who denied all the charges. The Swiss Banking Act requires employees of Swissregulated banks to keep client information confidential, but a number of staff have leaked account details in the past decade as Western governments cracked down on tax evasion. Some lawmakers in the EU had worried that the prosecutors’ move, if successful, would deter potential whistleblowers from supplying information on people accused of shifting their wealth to tax havens through accounts protected by secrecy laws. Zurich prosecutors had asked the court to interpret the law so that the secrecy obligation could be widened to include people with looser working relationships to Swiss banks and their subsidiaries abroad. They were appealing against the 2016 acquittal of Elmer on charges brought under the secrecy law. Elmer, who was in the courtroom, expressed relief at the verdict. “It’s a positive one, definitely,” he said. “It was made clear by the court that Swiss bank secrecy law is not applicable to banks in countries outside of Switzerland,” his attorney, Ganden Tethong, added. Elmer, who headed the Cayman Islands office of private bank Julius Baer until he was dismissed in 2002, later sent documents of alleged tax evasion to WikiLeaks and tax authorities across the globe. | Reuters