Black money comes mainly from India: Assange

Agencies

New Delhi, 27 April 2011:  At a stage where governments around the world have tried to hide away from the embarrassment caused by WikiLeaks expose on black money, founder Julian Assange speaks exclusively to TIMES NOW’s Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami on the Swiss bank data and Indian names features in the same. 

 

Julian Assange, made a stunning disclosure, that there could be Indian names in the data that WikiLeaks would publish. In the course of the interview, Assange appealed to Indians to absolutely not lose hope that the names of those with secret Swiss accounts will come out at one point in the future. Hinting that Wikileaks might work with specialized agencies before releasing the Swiss bank data he pulled up the Indian government for not being aggressive like Germany in going after the list of Indian account holders. In fact he said India should be more aggressive because India seems like it is losing per capita more tax money than Germany 

 

This is the first time Assange has spoken about Indian accounts in these Swiss banks, and comes at a time when the national debate over Swiss Bank accounts has sharpened. 

In his interview with Arnab Goswami, the founder of the whistle-blowing organization disclosed that he has access to the Swiss bank details about Indian nationals who have stashed foreign money in Swiss controlled banks all over the world. “Yes, there are Indian names in the list,” he said. 

 

Assange, while expressing concern that Indians depositing billions of black money in foreign locations is having a cascading impact on the economy, stressed upon the need for the government to be more vigilant on the issue. 

 

“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 pointed out. 

 

However, he lamented that the Indian government’s response to the stunning disclosures made by the whistle-blowing website have been “very discouraging”.

 

 

“The Indian government’s response to the disclosures made by us has been the worst in the whole world. The Indian government has been clearly attempting to mislead the people of India. I have been told the PM Singh is not corrupt, but his intention so far in tracing the black money stashed abroad has been very disappointing,” Assange said. 

 

The WikiLeaks founder also categorically rejected the government’s argument that the double taxation agreement with the Swiss authorities was hampering the efforts in bringing the money back. 

 

“Double taxation has nothing to do with the assets hiding. It’s affecting the economy and making things dearer for Indians,” he said. 

 

Suspecting a foul play by the Swiss authorities, Assange stated that the disclosures by his organization have made people jittery in the concerned nations as he has been approached by some elements to return the Swiss bank data in return for big favours. 

 

Julian Assange also lamented that the Swiss bank whistleblower Rudolf Elmer, a former employee of Switzerland’s Julius Baer Bank and Trust Ltd, was being held hostage for leaking the list purportedly containing names of the secret account holders to WikiLeaks. 

 

Assange said that he was being threatened to withdraw the crucial information which he has about Swiss banks account holders over the pretext that it would jeopardize the banking business in Switzerland and other safe tax havens.