Assange says Wikileaks' next target is major US bank

Wikileaks founder: 50% of unpublished documents deal with private sector; release will be like Enron emails showing unethical practice.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Wikileaks Julian Assange (photo credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Wikileaks Julian Assange
(photo credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Wikileaks' next target will be a major American bank, the website's founder Julian Assange told Forbes magazine in an interview published on Monday.
Assange said that he still has numerous unpublished documents and that the next batch will "give a true and representative insight into how banks behave at the executive level in a way that will stimulate investigations and reforms," and added "For this, there's only one similar example. It's like the Enron emails."
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The Wikileaks founder said about fifty percent of his "trove of documents" is related to the private sector and that "it could take down a [US] bank or two," after the documents are released early next year.
He said that the private sector documents will reveal "all the regular decision making that turns a blind eye to and supports unethical practices: the oversight that’s not done, the priorities of executives, how they think they’re fulfilling their own self-interest. The way they talk about it.
Assange noted that Wikileaks also has material on Russian companies and politicians, pharamceutical companies, industrial espionage by the US, the energy industry, environmental issues, and finance.
When asked "What do you think Wikileaks means for business?" Assange answered that "Wikileaks means it's easier to run a good business and harder to run a bad business, and all CEOs should be encouraged by this."
He added, "There’s a threat of regulation that produces self-regulation. It just means that it’s easier for honest CEOs to run an honest business, if the dishonest businesses are more effected negatively by leaks than honest businesses. That’s the whole idea. In the struggle between open and honest companies and dishonest and closed companies, we’re creating a tremendous reputational tax on the unethical companies."


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