Website shutdown draws fire

A federal judge has set off a free speech tempest after shutting down a U.S. website for posting internal documents accusing a Cayman Islands’ bank branch of money laundering and tax evasion schemes.

Bank Julius Baer & Co. said in papers filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco that a disgruntled executive fired for “misconduct” stole the documents and illegally posted them on www.wikileaks.org.

The bank also said a number of the documents had been altered, but it didn’t provide details.

The site claims to have posted 1.2 million leaked government and corporate documents that it says expose unethical behavior.

It included copies of a 2003 operation manual for the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The bank, based in Zurich, sued Wikileaks and its San Mateo hosting company Dynadot on Feb. 6, alleging that the website had posted stolen and confidential financial data.

Last week, Dynadot agreed to shut down the site and bar Wikileaks from transferring the domain name to another host. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White issued a formal ruling a day later.

Dynadot officials didn’t return telephone calls Tuesday seeking a comment.

Wikileaks was not represented at that hearing.

Wikileaks said in a statement that shutting down the entire website, instead of narrowly ordering the removal of the disputed materials, amounts to unconstitutional “prior restraint” by the government of an entire publishing organization.

Wikileaks vowed to continue publishing the bank’s documents on its other websites hosted by companies outside the United States.