Five Years For $230 Million Tax Fraud

The Windsor Square

Vyacheslav Khlebnikov, one of the perpetrators of the $230 million tax fraud exposed by lawyer Sergei Magnitsky has escaped from any significant sentencing for his role in the crime despite the gravity of the crime and in spite of Khlebnikov’s previous criminal convictions. Instead, he has been given a light sentence by Igor Alisov, Chief Judge of the Tverskoi District Court of Moscow.

According to the court, Khlebnikov was sentenced to 5 years in a colony but faced no financial fines and was not required to return the $230 million in stolen funds or identify where the money had gone. The hearing and sentencing took place in a trial which did not have witnesses and which did not require any evidence, instead relying solely on Khlebnikov’s own testimony. The public was not informed of the sentencing despite formal appeals filed with the Russian General Prosecutors Office by Magnitsky’s colleagues, who insisted on a public and transparent hearing.

Khlebnikov was convicted under Article 159 of Russian Criminal Code which recommends sentences lasting between 5 and 10 years, depending upon the seriousness and scale of the crime committed.

Vyacheslav Khlebnikov, who already has a long criminal record, received the lightest possible sentence of only 5 years which he can appeal and have further reduced.

A Hermitage Capital representative said:

“Khlebnikov’s light sentence is yet another example of how the cover-up of those involved in Russia’s largest ever tax fraud continues. The money stolen by men like Khlebnikov belongs to the Russian people, and passing such lenient and irrelevant sentences merely confirms that the authorities don’t really care about justice or the crimes but only about their own protection.”

Vyacheslav Khlebnikov is the second ex-convict after Victor Markelov, sentenced to prison time without any financial penalty for their role in perpetrating the largest tax rebate fraud in Russian history. Khlebnikov is a 43-year-old felon from Tambov region. His name first re-surfaced at the end of 2007 when the Hermitage Fund complained about the theft of their Russian companies by senior officials in the Russian Interior Ministry, Russian judges and organised criminals, including Khlebnikov and Victor Markelov. The complaints were filed after the plot to defraud the Russian state was uncovered, nearly one month before the criminals actually stole $230 million of taxes under the guise of a “tax refund”. Despite a series of complaints from the Hermitage Fund and testimonies from Sergei Magnitsky himself, the Russian authorities refused to take any action which would have prevented the $230 million theft from occurring. For two years, the Russian authorities dismissed any notion of Khlebnikov’s involvement in the fraud, releasing him from prosecution three times.

A Hermitage Capital representative said:

“It is remarkable how many steps the Russian authorities are prepared to take to avoid bringing to justice the real culprits of the crimes, even as they continue to try and blacken Sergei Magnitsky’s name when he was simply doing his duty as a loyal citizen by exposing corruption by government officials.”

In October 2008, Sergei Magnitsky, outside counsel to the Hermitage Fund, gave sworn testimony to the Russian State Investigative Committee, providing evidence of the involvement in the tax fraud of Khlebnikov and other organised criminals along with senior Interior Ministry officials, Lt Col Kuznetsov and Major Karpov. Soon after Magnitsky testified, he was arrested at his home by Lt Col Kuznetsov’s subordinates. Magnitsky was kept for 358 days in pre-trial detention in torturous conditions, where he eventually died from a lack of medical care at the age of 37, leaving behind a wife and two children.

Officers Kuznetsov and Karpov, whose families suddenly acquired wealth of more than $4 million dollars following the execution of the tax fraud, were freed by Russian authorities from prosecution and were promoted and honoured in November 2010.

Over the last three years, the Hermitage Fund has filed more than 20 complaints seeking the prosecution of the officials and criminals who stole three Russian companies from the Hermitage Fund and who participated in the false arrest, torture and murder of Sergei Magnitsky. In response, the Russian authorities have opened criminal cases against all Russian lawyers who filed the complaint on behalf of the Hermitage Fund. payday loan займ на карту онлайн female wrestling https://zp-pdl.com/online-payday-loans-cash-advances.php https://www.zp-pdl.com hairy woman