Russian police escalate case against William Browder

The Daily Telegraph

Lawyers for William Browder, chief executive of UK-based hedge fund Hermitage Capital Management, have attacked Russian police for the “flagrant misuse of the criminal justice system” in attempting to summon him to Moscow for questioning.

Mr Browder has been fighting a campaign against corrupt state officials for allegedly stealing $230m (£140m) from the Russian taxpayer and causing the death in custody of his colleague Sergei Magnitsky, a investigative lawyer.

The summons came from one of the officers accused of the alleged crimes and did not allegedly go through the proper channels.

Mr Browder said he believed the order was an attempt to bring him to Russia and “silence” him. Earlier this month, the same officer issued an arrest warrant for Hermitage executive Ivan Cherkasov for allegedly underpaying corporate tax in 2006 – a similar charge used to imprison Mr Magnitsky.

Mr Magnitsky was detained without trial for a year and died after being refused medical help. A human rights commission appointed by President Dmitry Medvedev last month found that Russian police had fabricated the charges against Mr Magnitsky.

The summons for Mr Browder was to answer questions on exactly the same charges as those “fabricated” to hold Mr Magnitsky, and signed by the same police official.

Hermitage officials said that the officer, who was recently promoted, had taken the action to demonstrate that the case was developing and to keep it alive.

Mr Browder’s lawyers appeared at the Russian Interior Ministry on his behalf. Hermitage believes the recent escalation is because it has tracked $47m of the allegedly stolen funds to Swiss bank accounts. Credit Suisse is reported to have since frozen those accounts “as an emergency measure”. микрозаймы онлайн займы онлайн на карту срочно www.zp-pdl.com https://zp-pdl.com/emergency-payday-loans.php микрозайм онлайн