Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

GOLDMAN’S MAGNITSKY ‘MONITORS’

The Washington Free Beacon

The news that Wall Street megabank Goldman Sachs may have tried to torpedo a human rights bill pertaining to Russia provoked a reaction from the financial giant, which maintains it never paid a prominent D.C. lobbying firm $100,000 to rally opposition to the legislation.

The Free Beacon reported Thursday that Goldman had retained the services of the D.C.-based lobbying firm Duberstein Group Inc. Lobbying disclosure forms showed the firm lobbied against the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, named after the Russian lawyer who was tortured and killed by Russia officials after discovering a $230 million embezzlement plot.

After failing to respond to multiple requests for comment, a senior Goldman Sachs official contacted the Free Beacon to dispute the initial report.

“We have not engaged any firm including the Duberstein group to lobby on that provision,” Jake Siewert, head of corporate communications for Goldman Sachs, told the Free Beacon late Thursday.

Siewert, a former Clinton administration official and adviser to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, would not detail the nature of his employer’s relationship with Duberstein, or explain on record why the Magnitsky measure was listed on the firm’s disclosure forms.

Pressed about the relationship, Siewert directed a reporter back to the Duberstein group.