According to the mainstream media, Barclays Bank has secured a High County injunction against the Guardian revealing details of a highly-sophisticated tax scam. It reported today:

“The internal Barclays memos were leaked by a mole to the Liberal Democrats. The new allegations reiterate claims that the bank's main purpose in entering into these schemes was to make profit from tax avoidance through an intricate circuit of offshore Cayman Islands and Luxembourg companies. The profits are said to be enormous and the deals so complex that HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) struggles to unravel them.”

It explained:

“Earlier today a judge confirmed the ban, saying the documents contained confidential commercial information and legal advice. The Guardian is also banned from giving information about other publicly accessible sources of copies of the documents.”

But Barclays Bank cannot do anything about the fact that the documents are freely available at Wikileaks:

 http://wikileaks.org.uk/wiki/Barclays_Bank_gags_Guardian_over_leaked_memos_detailing_offshore_tax_scam%2C_16_Mar_2009

And neither can it gag the non-uk media:


 http://www.azonline.ch/pages/index.cfm?dom=113&rub=100004700&arub=100211488&orub=100211474&osrub=100211488&Artikel_ID=102060762