UPDATED at 7:40 p.m. ET - , Visa is not processing WikiLeaks transactions, and is investigating affiliates who are using the service to process such transactions. Andreas Fink of DataCell still contends that test payments are being processed.
WikiLeaks has again begun accepting credit card donations, a company affiliated with the secret-spilling site said Thursday.
Andreas Fink, the chief executive of Icelandic payment processor DataCell, told The Associated Press that Visa and MasterCard were again processing payments to WikiLeaks after a seven month hiatus. Fink claimed the move was a tacit admission of guilt on behalf of the credit card companies, but it may well have been accidental.
Visa Europe spokesman Simon Kleine told AP that processing the payments was "not something that we've sanctioned" and that the company was investigating.
Both Visa and MasterCard pulled the plug on Fink's service in early December, shortly after WikiLeaks began publishing about 250,000 U.S. State Department cables. But Fink said Thursday that card services had been restored — saying that lawyers had made sure of it by making test donations.
An email and phone calls seeking comment from MasterCard were not immediately returned.