‘Donations Were Never as Strong as Now’ — German Foundation on Funding WikiLeaks in Spiegel Interview
Following up on my roundup of the fallout from PayPal’s decision to freeze the account used to raise funds for WikiLeaks, here is an interview with Hendrick Fulda, a board member of the charity who owns the PayPal account in question, the Wau Holland Foundation:
Highlights:
SPIEGEL: The Ebay subsidiary PayPal justified halting donations by saying that WikiLeaks supports illegal activities.
Fulda : That is far-fetched and we took legal steps against it. PayPal reacted quickly and released the frozen donations. The criticism is that WikiLeaks is possibly encouraging people to break the law. PayPal is explicitly calling that an opinion, but continues to cite its business terms and conditions. Our account remains blocked for new donations. If PayPal doesn’t want to work with us any more, it will always find a reason. We see this chapter as finished — end of story.
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SPIEGEL: How much money have you already collected in donations for WikiLeaks?
Fulda : Since October 2009, we have received a bit more than €900,000 ($1,2 million).
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SPIEGEL: How much money has been passed on to WikiLeaks?
Fulda : Up until now we’ve paid out over €370,000 to WikiLeaks.
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SPIEGEL: One of the criticisms of WikiLeaks is that there is no transparency regarding its internal finances. How do you control how the donations are used?
Fulda : As a matter of principle, we only pay out when we get a receipt. That applies to travel costs, as well as hardware expenses, for example new computers, or infrastructure costs like Internet access. Personnel costs are a relatively recent development. WikiLeaks now pays some of its employees salaries. The staff members give the organization an invoice and WikiLeaks hands them over to us. Finally we also deal with campaigns and legal assistance, for example lawyers’ costs. Nothing gets paid without a receipt.
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SPIEGEL: How have the donations fared since the latest batch of leaked diplomatic cables?
Fulda : Every new publication by WikiLeaks has unleashed a wave of support, and donations were never as strong as now. More than €80,000 was contributed in one week via PayPal alone. We will have to see what impact the removal of PayPal has on our incoming funds.
SPIEGEL: Are Assange’s defence costs against the rape allegations financed with money which you administer?
Fulda : No, that would not be in keeping with the foundation’s aim. We pay out money for WikiLeaks’ work but not for private matters relating to any of its employees.