Sergei Magnitsky: Quest for justice in Russian lawyer’s death begins to yield results

Toronto Star

On the night of Nov. 16, 2009, a battered body was carried from an isolation cell in Moscow’s Matrosskaya Tishina prison. It was that of 37-year-old Sergei Magnitsky.

The young, upcoming tax lawyer had been held in some of Russia’s roughest prisons for a year, and according to records, tortured, locked up in inhuman conditions and denied medical aid when he suffered an agonizing pancreatic ailment.

“He was an idealist,” says his former employer William Browder. “He could have left the country, but he believed that Russian law would protect him. But there is no rule of law in Russia.”

Magnitsky’s “crime” was to blow the whistle on the largest tax fraud ever perpetrated in Russia, and he paid with his life.

Now Browder, once Russia’s biggest foreign investor, devotes his time and resources to seeking justice for Magnitsky. The quest has led to an international confrontation, landmark legislation on human rights, and an awareness that officials at the highest levels can be held accountable.

The U.S. Congress has just passed a Magnitsky Act that freezes the assets of 60 Russians linked with his death and bars them from entering the country: it spreads the net wider, to all those responsible for gross violations of human rights in Russia.

In Canada, Liberal MP Irwin Cotler is introducing a similar private member’s bill. Browder met this week with Public Safety Minister Vic Toews and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney. Other Western countries are watching closely.

Russia has retaliated furiously, passing a tit-for-tat bill to sanction Americans who commit human rights violations against Russians. It’s shaping up as the biggest chill in relations since the Cold War.

The back story is as complex as any Russian novel.

It began in the early ’90s when Browder, a young financial consultant, went to Russia and discovered widespread theft by owners and managers of new private businesses that stripped the value of their companies.

With no recourse in law, he began to rigorously document the fraudulent transactions, His newly formed company, Hermitage Capital Management, created a “stealing analysis” that was a hit with the foreign and Russian media.

Hermitage grew to become the largest investment fund in Russia. Isolated from mob wars that overtook many businessmen, he continued to expose nefarious operators.

But his luck — and Magnitsky’s — ran out when President Vladimir Putin took over from Boris Yeltsin. At first, Browder’s scandalous revelations were a windfall for Putin in his struggle to claw back power from oligarchs and rogue regional governors. “When we exposed one of his enemies, he’d be down on them like a ton of bricks.”

But when a major oligarch escaped Putin’s wrath and ended up as governor of a remote province — allegedly after a multi-million-dollar payoff — Browder knew the détente was over and the battle had begun. In November 2005, he was detained at a Russian airport, deported, and then declared a “threat to national security.”

Browder quickly pulled out his $4 billion or more assets and shut down his Russian office. But Magnitsky’s Firestone Duncan law firm that held documents for his investment holding companies was raided by police, and they were re-registered in the name of a man once jailed for murder. Browder hired a team of lawyers including Magnitsky to uncover the plot.

“He was the smartest lawyer I knew in Russia,” Browder said. “He was at the peak of his energy and efficiency, he’d perfected his expertise and had an incredible amount of personal charisma.”

None of that helped Magnitsky, when he discovered that the operation was a complex manoeuver to wrongfully charge the companies with tax evasion — then declare them bankrupt and obtain a refund for the $230 million in taxes that Browder had paid. “It was the largest tax refund in the history of Russia,” he said. “They applied for it on Dec. 23, and it was awarded the next day.”

At first, it was unthinkable that the state would be involved in such corruption, he said. “We thought it was some sort of rogue operation. We wrote complaints to every law enforcement agency in Russia. But it turns out there were no good guys. Instead of a criminal investigation, they opened cases against all seven of our lawyers, including Sergei. I asked them all to come to London at my expense.”

Only Magnitsky stayed, testifying against those held responsible in a quest for justice that proved a tragic illusion. But even under torture and intimidation, he refused to recant. Keeping a cool head, he documented all the injuries he had suffered. The Russian authorities, not expecting reprisals, allowed his lawyer to file 450 complaints. When, on that fatal night in November, guards apparently beat the gravely ill man to death with rubber truncheons, that too was recorded in their files.

“Russia is a country without law,” says Browder, “but there is procedure.” More than three years after his death, Magnitsky’s pleas, ignored by his jailers, are being answered around the world. срочный займ на карту онлайн срочный займ https://zp-pdl.com/online-payday-loans-cash-advances.php https://zp-pdl.com/fast-and-easy-payday-loans-online.php займ на карту