Magnitsky fund boss says staff received death threats

Agence France Presse

The head of the investment fund at the centre of the Magnitsky fraud scandal said Friday staff had received death threats, as British police probed the unexplained death of a Russian involved in the case.

The chief executive of investment fund Hermitage Capital, William Browder, would not say whether he believed that Alexander Perepilichnyy, 44, who died on November 10 near his home in Surrey outside London, had been murdered.

But he confirmed the Russian businessman had since 2010 been passing evidence to Hermitage of the involvement of Russian officials in a scheme to embezzle $230 million (177 million euros) by obtaining false tax returns on payments made by the fund.

Hermitage’s lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, died in a Russian jail in 2009 after he went public with allegations about the conspiracy and was in turn taken into custody accused of tax violations.
Browder said Perepilichnyy was the fourth person linked to the Magnitsky affair to have died in unexplained circumstances.

“We received more than 10 death threats since the whole campaign to get justice began. So obviously, there are characters who have victimised Sergei Magnitsky and us, who are extremely dangerous people, who are capable of doing very grave crimes,” he told AFP.

Perepilichnyy collapsed and died near his mansion on a luxury private estate on the outskirts of Weybridge in Surrey.

Surrey police said Friday they had carried out a second post-mortem on his body after the first was “inconclusive”. The results from toxicology tests are not due for several weeks.

Perepilichnyy’s evidence was crucial to the decision by Swiss authorities to open an investigation into the potential use of Swiss bank accounts by Russian officials involved in the Hermitage fraud, Browder said.

The Russian embassy in London said in a statement: “We cannot see any connection between the death of Mr. Alexander Perepilichnyy, the causes of which are yet to be established, and the so called ‘Magnitsky case’.” займ на карту срочно без отказа payday loan https://zp-pdl.com/apply-for-payday-loan-online.php https://zp-pdl.com/fast-and-easy-payday-loans-online.php микрозаймы онлайн