A message claiming that WikiLeaks has published the ‘first list of Indian black money holders in secret banks in the UK’ is being widely circulated on social media platforms (here, here, & here). The post further mentions the names of 24 BJP leaders, including PM Modi and Amit Shah. The same message is also going viral with the names of several I.N.D.I.A bloc leaders. These posts also allege that Indian black money in Swiss banks amounts to 1.3 trillion dollars.
Claim: WikiLeaks published the first list of Indian black money holders, containing 24 names, in Swiss banks located in the UK.
Fact: WikiLeaks has never published any list of Indians holding black money in Swiss banks. In 2011, WikiLeaks issued a clarification regarding a different version of the same message. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
To check the veracity of the viral claim, we conducted a keyword search. However, this search did not yield any credible reports about WikiLeaks publishing a list of Indian black money holders. During this search, we found that similar messages, with different Indian political leaders’ names, have been going viral on social media since 2011, claiming that WikiLeaks published the first list of Indian black money holders in Swiss banks (here, here & here) (archived here).
According to reports, in 2011, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said that Swiss banks hold most of the money deposited by Indians. However, no list has been released with the names of Indian black money holders in Swiss banks (here, here).
We then searched the WikiLeaks website regarding the viral claim but found no such list or report on black money holders in Swiss banks. WikiLeaks published its last report on 05 August 2021.
During this search, we found a tweet shared by WikiLeaks in 2011. The organization had clarified a different version of the same message and called the message fake. A similar clarification post was also shared on their official Facebook page.
To sum it up, WikiLeaks did not publish any list of Indians holding black money in Swiss banks.
