Former Swiss private banker Rudolf Elmer has handed over secret documents to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange at a press conference in London.

According to Wikipedia, Mr. Elmer is a former employee of Swiss bank Julius Bär. He worked for the bank for close to two decades, the last position being overseeing the Caribbean operations of the bank for eight years until his dismissal in 2002.[2][3] He came to prominence as a whistleblower in 2008 when he gave secret documents to WikiLeaks detailing the activities of Julius Bär in the Cayman Islands and alleged tax evasion.[4] Before that, he was arrested in 2005 for 30 days. He was convicted in Switzerland in January 2011 and rearrested immediately after for having distributed illegally obtained data to WikiLeaks early in January 2011.

Asked why he has come forth with secret information that has placed his and his family's livelihood and life at risk, Mr. Elmer stated, "I am a critic of offshore business by banks and multinational companies. - Offshore centres have multiplied since the 1960s to the present, increasing from 10 to 80. Trusts as in the laws of Commonwealth countries are - despite being legal - illegitimate. Privacy protection is important for banking and I am not against bank secrecy but companies abuse this secrecy. I have never received money from tax authorities. I want to change the system."

We have posted as much video of the historic press conference as we could find. We will update this story as more information becomes available.