Wikileaks losing 600,000 francs every week since first publication
By ANITuesday, January 11, 2011
LONDON - Julian Assange, the founder of the whistleblower website ‘Wikileaks’, has said his site has been losing 600,000 francs (about 618,000 dollars) every week since it first began publishing diplomatic cables.
According to CBS News, the financial world was shocked when rumours about a major Wikileaks document intending to embarrass one of America’s banking giants, surfaced. Bank of America reportedly set up a crisis team to deal with the dump, and stocks fell on the rumours.
Assange said that although external political pressures on WikiLeaks have not stopped them from carrying on with their mission, financial troubles have certainly caused problems.
However, he did not mention exactly what is costing his website so much money.
“We will not divulge (the banking documents we have) right away. We are too busy with the diplomatic cables and with our financial troubles,” Assange said.
Last year, PayPal, the online payments service, had blocked donations to WikiLeaks and to a German foundation that raises funds for it following the release of 250,000 confidential US government cables.
The rate at which WikiLeaks has released U.S. diplomatic cables to the public has slowed dramatically in the last few weeks. However, Assange said that his website was functioning normally despite the financial difficulties. (ANI)
