As of January 2011 The Daily Caveat has moved over to a new platform provided by the fine folks at Tumblr.com.  You can still find the blog at its longtime home: www.dailycaveat.com.

I plan to leave the archives of the old blog available, via the www.thedailycaveat.blogspot.com address.  Thank you all for your many years of support and readership.

I hope you'll enjoy reading the newly launched version of the site as much as I enjoy creating it.

Just click the header above to be taken to the latests posts!

-- MDT

Labels: New Digs

Swiss banking whistleblower (swisstleblower?),  Rudolph Elmer who was down with Wikileaks before the site was ever mentioned outside of the business page, has finally made his way to trial.

Elmer, as you may recall has admitted responsibility for passing along Julius Baer Bank documents to the radical transparency site back in 2008.

Elmer's motive?  Revenge.  The result?  Exposure of corruption and tax evasion along with the possible suicide of Baer CEO, Alex Widmer.

More on the Elmer trial here.

Labels: Julius Baer, Rudolph Elmer, whistleblower, Wikileaks

As of yesterday, Julian Assange is in police custody, held without bail while awaiting extradition back to Sweden.  

Despite angry chatter from a number of elected officials and media types, the founder of the highly controversial Wikileaks website hasn't been arrested for anything to do with his recently released trove of diplomatic dispatches.  

Rather, Assange is being pursued on sexual assault-related charges, resulting from the complaints of two separate women.  A police report was filed in Sweden back in late August, alleging rape and sexual molestation.

At the time the report was filed, the on-duty prosecutor, Marie Kjellstrand opted to charge Assange at that time. The very next day, a second prosecutor, Eva Finne withdrew the charges based on lack of evidence. By September 1st, the the charges had been reinstated by Marianne Ny, yet another prosecutor, and notably one who had been active in the reform of Sweden's rape laws.  

While the rape charge, sepcifically, has gone back and forth, there is also a separate molestation charge against Assange, filed at the same time and relating to the alleged molestation of a second women.  Both women are represented by the same lawyer, Claes Borgstrom.

As best understood, Assange is apparently wanted for the uniquely Swedish offense of "sex by surprise." This colorful nomenclature translates in practice to failure to discontinue sex after condom breakage/removal over.

According to information presented by the prosecution during Assange's arrest hearing, his sexual partners allege that they were alternatively held down / asleep at the time.  This would seem to complicate matters for Assange, if true. However, it gets more complicated.  

According to recently published reports, the two women, who are apparently acquainted, originally did not intend to seek charges against Assange.  They merely wanted him to get an STD test after discovering they both had unprotected sex with him during a short period.

The women actually approached police together, seeking the assistance of Swedish authorities in compelling Assange to take an STD test.  The women claim to have done so after failing to reach Assange on his cell phone over a period of several days.

Assange is currently being held without bail in a British jail.  He has vowed to fight extradition to Sweden.  His next hearing is scheduled for December 14th and the difficult-to-derail extradition process could take from a few weeks to a few months.

Assange, and Wikileaks, have planned for this eventuality, by letting it be known that a particularly embarrassing cache of documents awaits release, should Assange be taken into custody by a hostile government.

This "thermonuclear option for the digital age" as described by Assange's lawyer, Mark Stephens awaits activation via 256-digit decrypt code.  Likely contents, according to some:  unredacted documents relating to the recent BP Oil spill as well as the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.

Whether or not Wikileaks' threat to release additional embarrassing documents en masse is Assange was arrested will be made good on remains to be seen.  These documents, labeled "insurance" have been distributed widely, in encrypted form, amongst supporters of the  group.

As to what truly happened between these women and Assange, who truly can say?  But considering the fine for Assange's alleged misdeeds amounts to 5000 Swedish Kronor or $715, it certainly seems that an Interpol "red notice" and international manhunt involves some level of political motivation.

Whatever happens to Assange, the game - for governments and business alike - has well and truly changed.  William Gibson, the famous futurist and novelist made the following observation in a recent interview:

One of the things that’s unknowable is how humanity will use any new technology. … Technology trumps politics. Technology trumps religion. It just does. And that’s why we are where we are now. … This is not only what we do, it’s literally who we are as a species. We’ve become something other than what our ancestors were.

Wikileaks emergence as a global force seems to speak to his point.  Our  political and financial leaders are now operating on a field of play where the lines have been laid down by Wikileaks, its supporters and imitators - and this will still be the case no matter how long Julian Assange sits in the penalty box.

--MDT

Labels: Eva Finne, Interpol, Julian Assange, Marianne Ny, Wikileaks, William Gibson

Not if you've been following The Daily Caveat for any length of time...  This investigation has been in the works for quite some time and some familiar names, like Gerson Lehrman, have recently re-emerged.

The early heat had come from the NY AG's office, which sent out subpoenas back in 2007 and there was a brief little mention of a parallel Federal probe.  That shoe, it seems has well and truly dropped.

Labels: expert networks, Gerson Lehrman Group, insider trading