Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

The Fund Manager At The Center Of Russia’s Tragic Hermitage Saga Talks Putin And Corruption

Business Insider

Bill Browder was one of the first Westerners to make a fortune in post-Communism Russia.

After arriving in the country in 1997, his fund Hermitage Capital Management started with $25 million and was at one point thought to have invested $4.5 billion, making it one of the largest foreign investors in the country.

However, in 2005 that all changed. While Browder had initially supported Vladimir Putin, he found himself barred from entry to the country.

When he began to investigate, tragedy struck. In 2008, Sergei Magnitsky, a young lawyer who was working for Hermitage Capital, was arrested after he reported allegations of a huge tax $230 million fraud to the authorities. He found himself accused of the very crimes he was reporting, and was thrown into prison.

Magnitsky died in prison in 2009. A Russian report later found he had been “tortured, beaten to death”. Despite his death, Magnitsky remains on trial, and no one has been charged with his death.

Browder and Hermitage are now based in London, where they still control $1 billion in assets.

However, Browder remains active in Russian life. Last year he released this video of their corruption allegations, and his pressure was able to get visa sanctions from the US and Canada on the officials involved in the death of Magnitsky.