U.S. Justice Department Files Suit Against Companies Connected to Magnitsky Affair

Moscow Times

The U.S. Justice Department has filed civil suits against 11 companies involved with Russian officials on the Magnitsky list, alleging that they used luxury New York real estate to launder $230 million in illegally begotten funds.

The action is “a significant step towards uncovering and unwinding a complex money laundering scheme,” Preet Bharara, a U.S. district attorney in New York, said in a statement.

Officials are accused of using an American subsidiary of the Cyprus-based company Prevezon Holdings, owned by former Transportation Minister Peter Katsyv’s son Denis, and other intermediaries to hide billions of rubles stolen from the Russian treasury.

Denis Katysv’s lawyer said that her client was surprised by the accusations because he bought the company six months after the alleged money laundering took place, Kommersant reported.

The complaint says the companies purchased high-end Manhattan condos with money that had been funneled to them in an elaborate tax fraud scheme that involved sham lawsuits against the investment fund Hermitage Capital Management.

A lawyer for the fund, Sergei Magnitsky, accused Russian government officials of masterminding the fraud scheme, but was arrested and later charged with the same crimes he had reported to the authorities and died after a beating in detention.

Hermitage Capital Management CEO William Browder has led a campaign in to punish the officials involved by restricting their ability to travel to or hold back accounts in other countries. In December, U.S. Congress passed the Magnitsky Act, which placed sanctions on 18 Russian officials.

In July, Moscow’s Tverskoi District Court convicted both Magnitsky and Browder, in absentia, of tax evasion and stealing more than $15 million. But Interpol has refused to extradite Browder to Russia, calling the case against him politically motivated. hairy girl займы на карту срочно https://zp-pdl.com/emergency-payday-loans.php https://zp-pdl.com/get-a-next-business-day-payday-loan.php быстрые займы онлайн