Former banker Bradley Birkenfeld, who is regarded as the biggest financial whistleblower of all time, said on April 12 that the CIA could have been behind the Mossack Fonseca data leak.
Birkenfeld, an American, worked at UBS in Switzerland when he leaked information to the U.S. government on large amounts of tax evasion by Americans with secret accounts in Switzerland. After the revelation, Birkenfeld served two and a half years in federal prison, but he was also awarded $104 million by the IRS for releasing the information.
Birkenfeld told CNBC that it should not be believed the Panama Papers were leaked by a whistleblower, but by a U.S. intelligence agency.
“The CIA, I’m sure is behind this, in my opinion,” Birkenfeld told CNBC.
The Panama Papers were released on April 3 by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and other news organizations.
The data breach, which included 11.5 million documents from the Mossack Fonseca law firm, named 12 world leaders and 140 other politicians in connection to offshore companies in 21 tax havens.
The names included Vladimir Putin, Argentine president Mauricio Macri, and Prime Minister of Iceland Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, who has since stepped down and is serving as chairman of the Progressive Party.
Birkenfeld noted that the Panama Papers mainly mentioned individuals in countries with tense relationships with the United States.
“The very fact that we see all these names surface that are the direct quote-unquote enemies of the United States—Russia, China, Pakistan, Argentina and we don’t see one U.S. name. Why is that?” Birkenfeld said.
“Quite frankly, my feeling is that this is certainly an intelligence agency operation.”
