Indian-sounding names in Swiss bank secret accounts”

PTI

A television channel on Tuesday claimed that some Indian-sounding names figured in the Swiss bank secret accounts data, which were handed over to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange by a former Swiss banker.

Headlines Today showed a list purportedly containing names of the secret account holders in Julius Baer Bank and Trust Ltd, a Swiss Bank. The list was handed over by one of its former employees, Rudolf Elmer to Assange.

The channel showed the list purportedly containing Indian-sounding names but made it clear that it could not independently verify the genuineness of the identity of the account holders or whether they were Indians or not. Two entities had purportedly parked the equivalent of about Rs.432 crore.

Mr. Elmer told the channel: “I think that the owner of Julius Baer is very much in the business of India. They actually hired investment managers sitting in India for getting money out of India.”