London ( CNN ) -- A Swiss whistle-blower Monday handed over what he said were secret Swiss banking records to WikiLeaks , the website dedicated to revealing secrets . Swiss banker Rudolf Elmer handed two discs to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at a news conference in London . WikiLeaks could release the secret Swiss banking records in `` a matter of weeks '' if it can process them quickly enough , Assange said . Elmer said he would not reveal the names in the records and said he was unable to say how many people were involved . Who is Rudolf Elmer ? He said about 2,000 clients ' records were included , but that because of the way trusts and corporations are set up , he could not determine how many individuals were involved . Elmer describes himself as an activist/reformer/banker . `` I think , as a banker , I do have the right to stand up if something is wrong , '' he said Monday , explaining why he was giving the documents to the website . Elmer is due to go on trial Wednesday in Switzerland for violating the country 's banking secrecy regulations . He said he wanted `` to let society know what I do know and how this system works because it is damaging our society in the way that money is moved '' and hidden in offshore jurisdictions . He began looking into the issue when he was a banker in the Cayman Islands , he said . When he first looked into the problems of offshore banking he said it looked like `` a mouse tail , '' but as he investigated in the Cayman Islands and Switzerland , it became a `` dragon 's tail , '' and finally a many-headed dragon . Speaking at the same news conference , lawyer Jack Blum said it was not always possible to determine who , if anyone , had engaged in `` criminal tax evasion . '' Elmer aims to `` challenge Swiss Bank Secrecy at the European Court of Human Rights and the Swiss courts , '' he says on his website . He has worked at six offshore banking centers , he says . He has been engaged in a long-running battle with Swiss banks over secrecy , he said . He said he had approached tax authorities and universities with his data , but that no one was interested . He was about to give up , he said , when he learned about WikiLeaks from a friend . He said he was `` grateful '' to WikiLeaks for helping him `` send the message which I wanted to send , '' but that he was not trying to use it for `` protection '' as he faced prosecution .
NEW : About 2,000 client records are handed over . WikiLeaks could publish the documents within weeks , Julian Assange says . Rudolf Elmer says he has a right to stand up if he sees something wrong . Elmer and Assange are fighting Swiss banking secrecy .