The lawyer and businessman who tried to take on the criminal gang

The Times

Sergei Magnitsky, 37, was a lawyer for the US firm Firestone Duncan and represented the London-based hedge fund Hermitage Capital. Hermitage’s founder Bill Browder was once Russia’s biggest foreign investor until he was banned from the country on national security grounds in 2005.

Mr Magnitsky testified against a group of Interior Ministry police officers that he had accused of fraudulently reclaiming $230 million (£144 million) in state taxes paid by Hermitage companies in 2008. He alleged that they had raided the law firm to seize documents relating to the companies, and had then changed the ownership to carry out the largest tax fraud in Russian history.

The same police arrested him a month later and accused him of tax evasion. He complained of repeated torture and beatings to try to force him to withdraw his testimony, while family members were barred from visiting him.

Mr Magnitsky was denied medical treatment for his illnesses and died in pre-trial detention shortly after being beaten in his cell by a group of eight guards as an ambulance waited for more than an hour outside the prison in November 2009.

Alexander Perepilichny had also been a witness against a notorious criminal gang headed by Dmitry Klyuyev, 45, which is accused of using corrupt police and tax officials to steal companies and orchestrate fraudulent refunds. Mr Klyuyev’s Universal Savings Bank was allegedly used to channel the $230 million in fraudulent tax rebate exposed by Mr Magnitsky.

Hermitage Capital accused Olga Stepanova, the Moscow tax official who authorised the tax refund on the same day it was submitted, of being a “key member” of the Klyuyev crime group. It claimed that she authorised $470 million in fraudulent tax refunds between 2006 and 2008, all paid through Mr Klyuyev’s bank, which filed for voluntary liquidation shortly after the $230 million payment was made.

It also alleged that she and her husband, Vladlen, travelled to Cyprus and Dubai with Mr Klyuyev at the time of the fraudulent tax claim. It claimed that the couple had amassed assets worth nearly $39 million as a result of their involvement with the Klyuyev crime group, despite having declared earnings of less than $39,000. unshaven girl займ на карту без отказов круглосуточно https://zp-pdl.com/online-payday-loans-cash-advances.php https://zp-pdl.com/emergency-payday-loans.php срочный займ на карту онлайн