MFDB

Storyline

A journey to the heart of tax havens and institutionalised secrecy with Rudolf Elmer, the Swiss whistleblower who, through WikiLeaks, revealed to the world the dirty secrets of a Swiss private bank located in the Cayman Islands.

“A Leak In Paradise” is an investigative documentary about the offshore world built on two deeply intertwined stories:

• the personal story of Rudolf Elmer, a former bank manager in the Cayman Islands who is now crusading against tax havens after having allegedly breached bank secrecy laws by publishing sensitive banking data on WikiLeaks;
• the recent turmoil in the global financial system and its misadventures – from the subprime crisis with its domino effect on finance and the economy, to the Madoff scam and tax evasion mega-scandals in Liechtenstein and Switzerland.

The personal story of Rudolf Elmer, repentant banker and whistleblower, will highlight and provide perspective on the recent systemic story of global finance. Few people know it but the opacity and lack of regulation in international offshore centres are at the core of the financial crisis of 2008 – the worst since 1929.
“A leak in paradise”: behind the scenes of an ongoing robbery.