Elmer has been embroiled in a long-running legal case with Julius Baer after he was accused of handing sensitive client data to whistleblower website WikiLeaks in 2008.
He was also accused of attempting to hand over data to various tax authorities and media outlets.
Not in Switzerland
Elmer’s defence team argued that he should not be charged with violating Swiss banking secrecy laws as he was chief operating officer of a Julius Baer subsidiary in the Cayman Islands and therefore outside the jurisdiction, reports Swissinfo.
On Tuesday, the supreme court of the canton of Zurich found Elmer guilty of having threatened Julius Baer by email and fax after he was fired, but dismissed claims that he had breached Switzerland’s bank secrecy laws.
“In blowing the whistle, I was acting in the public interest. I have been pursued for breaking draconian Swiss banking secrecy laws.”
Swiss news agency SDA quoted the judge as saying that Elmer is “not a whistleblower, but an ordinary criminal”.
A psychiatric report, cited by the judge, attested that Elmer suffered from a narcissistic disorder and saw himself as a victim of an environment that had not honoured him properly.
His sentence has been suspended for three years and no professional disqualifications were imposed, meaning that Elmer can continue working in his current role as an asset manager.
The case
Elmer was fired by Julius Baer in 2002 after eight years with the bank in the Cayman Islands. He later gave information to WikiLeaks allegedly showing his former employer set up trusts and other structures to help clients evade tax through offshore accounts.
In 2011, International Adviser reported that Elmer planned to publicly release details of more than 2,000 accounts to WiliLeaks founder Julian Assange in London, two days before his court date in Zurich, which he duly did.
At his 2011 trial Elmer was found guilty of breaching Swiss banking secrecy laws but it was deemed that there was insufficient evidence that the CDs given to Assange contained confidential information.
Elmer served 220 days in prison.
He appealed the verdict on the basis that, as a Cayman Islands’ employee, his actions were not governed by Swiss banking secrecy laws.
Blowing the whistle
In an article attributed to Elmer on the taxjustice website, dated July 2015, he wrote: “I blew the whistle on thousands of wealthy individuals including shady arms brokers, Mexican officials linked to drug dealers, Saudi companies linked to the Bin Laden family, and politicians accused of corruption.
“In blowing the whistle, I was acting in the public interest. I have been pursued for breaking draconian Swiss banking secrecy laws.”
