WikiLeaks boss Julian Assange cashes in on fame and signs autobiography deals 'worth £1.1m'



WikiLeaks boss Julian Assange has signed deals for his autobiography worth £1.1million, he said today.

The Australian whistleblower said the money would help him defend himself against allegations of sexual assault made by two women in Sweden.

The 39-year-old claimed to have already spent £200,000 on legal costs.

'I don't want to write this book, but I have to,' he told the Sunday Times. 'I have already spent £200,000 for legal costs and I need to defend myself and to keep WikiLeaks afloat.'

Author: WikiLeaks boss Julian Assange has signed deals for his autobiography worth £1.1million, money he said would help him defend himself against allegations of sexual assault made by two women in Sweden

Mr Assange said he would receive $800,000 (£520,000) from Alfred A Knopf, his American publisher, and a British deal with Canongate is worth £325,000 ($500,000).

Money from other markets and serialisation is expected to raise the total to £1.1million, he said.

He is free on a £240,000 of bail money put up by his fans, including famous faces like Jemima Khan and Michael Moore.



It yesterday emerged that the main financial arm of WikiLeaks, the Germany-based Wau Holland Foundation, said it has collected about $1.3million in donations in 2010.

Wau Holland is the major financial provider for WikiLeaks, the Wall Street Journal reported.

It has established a Greenpeace-like system of salary payments, as WikiLeaks attempts to legitimise its organisation by moving away from purely volunteer-based work.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the move towards salaried employees came after a year-long intense internal debate about whether to do so.

Of this, Mr Assange has raked in around $86,000 in salary this year, and Wau Holland has paid more than $130,000 in salaries to the entire WikiLeaks staff.

While it appears that Mr Assange is taking the bulk of the money, the Wall Street Journal is quick to point out that Wau Holland is not WikiLeaks' sole monetary provider.



The latest WikiLeaks project is the gradual release of tens of thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables.

Since this process began Mr Assange, who is on bail in Britain fighting a bid by Sweden to extradite him over the sex assault claims, has faced problems financing WikiLeaks.

Credit card companies Visa and MasterCard and the Internet payment firm PayPal have blocked donations to WikiLeaks, prompting Mr Assange to label them 'instruments of U.S. foreign policy'.

The Bank of America, the largest U.S. bank, has also halted all transactions to WikiLeaks.

Washington has been infuriated by WikiLeaks as the site slowly releases the cache of around 250,000 secret U.S. State Department cables. The U.S. is believed to be considering how to indict Mr Assange over the the huge leak.

Mr Assange has been staying at a friend's country mansion in Sussex since his release from jail on December 16 on strict bail conditions that include reporting to police daily and wearing an electronic tag.

A court in London is due to hold a full hearing on the Swedish extradition request starting February 7.

