PostFinance, the banking arm of SwissPost, said it closed WikiLeaks.org founder Julian Assange's bank account, saying he does not qualify to be a client.
Assange "provided false information regarding his place of residence during the account opening process," PostFinance said Monday in a statement on its website.
Assange, an Australian citizen, gave Geneva as his place of residence, the statement said. As he cannot prove that he lives in Switzerland, he "does not meet the criteria for a customer relationship," it said.
WikiLeaks, the whistle-blowing website, is releasing about 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables.
"The technicality used to seize the defense fund was that Mr. Assange, as a homeless refugee attempting to gain residency in Switzerland, had used his lawyers' address in Geneva for the bank's correspondence," WikiLeaks said Monday in a Twitter feed. The account contained about $41,134, including some personal assets of Assange, WikiLeaks said.
