When an anonymous source leaked the Credit Suisse data to Süddeutsche Zeitung, Germany’s largest broadsheet newspaper, they knew exactly what they were doing. This was not a dump of data on the darknet or a sale to the highest bidder.
The recipients of the leak – Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer – are the award-winning investigative reporters behind the massive offshore leaks that led to the Panama and Paradise papers. In leaking the data to them, the source appears to have made a moral choice to circumvent what they said were Switzerland’s “immoral” banking secrecy laws.
Months of painstaking reporting have unearthed evidence that Credit Suisse had clients involved in torture, drug trafficking, money laundering and corruption. Some were allowed to open bank accounts years after they had been convicted for serious financial crimes.