Posts Tagged ‘browder’
DEAD RUSSIAN LAWYER MAGNITSKY FOUND GUILTY
More than three years after he died in prison, whistle-blowing Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was found guilty of tax evasion by a Moscow court Wednesday.
The posthumous trial of Magnitsky was a macabre chapter in a case that ignited a high-emotion dispute between Russia and Washington that has included U.S. sanctions against Russians deemed to be human rights violators, a ban on the adoption of Russian children by U.S. citizens and calls for the closure of Russian non-governmental organizations receiving American funding.
Magnitsky was a lawyer for U.S.-born British investor William Browder when he alleged in 2008 that organized criminals colluded with corrupt Interior Ministry officials to claim a fraudulent $230 million tax rebate after illegally seizing subsidiaries of Browder’s Hermitage Capital investment company.
He subsequently was arrested on tax evasion charges and died in prison in November 2009 of untreated pancreatitis at age 37.
His death prompted widespread criticism from human rights activists and the presidential human rights council found in 2011 that he had been beaten and deliberately denied medical treatment.
Announcing his verdict Thursday, Judge Igor Alisov said “Magnitsky masterminded a massive tax evasion scheme in a … conspiracy with a group of people,” according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.
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Russia finds Magnitsky posthumously guilty of fraud
The late Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky has been found guilty of tax fraud by a Moscow court.
Magnitsky was arrested in 2008 after accusing officials of tax fraud, but was later himself accused of the crime.
His death in custody a year later led to a major diplomatic dispute between Russia and the United States.
In the same trial, William Browder, CEO of Hermitage Capital Management which Magnitsky represented, was also found guilty of tax fraud.
Browder was convicted in absentia, and sentenced to nine years.
The London-based hedge fund manager has denied the charges and said the trial was politically motivated. His defence team have said they will appeal against the verdict.
In a statement, he said the verdict “will go down in history as one of the most shameful moments for Russia since the days of Joseph Stalin”.
“The desperation behind this move shows the lengths that Putin is ready to go and to retaliate against anyone who expose the stealing and corruption he presides over,” he said.
No sentence will be passed for Magnitsky, whose relatives regard the case as illegal.
A lawyer for the family told Russia’s Rapsi news agency: “I did not doubt that the decision would look like this.”
“I know that he committed no crimes.”
It is believed to be the first time in Soviet or Russian history that a defendant was tried posthumously.
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London ‘rolls out the red carpet’ for money launderers
THE head of a hedge fund that was the victim of a £144m fraud in Russia has complained that Britain has “rolled out the red carpet” for money launderers.
Bill Browder, founder and chief executive officer of Hermitage Capital Management, said British authorities had failed to investigate the fraud against his firm despite evidence showing the involvement of UK companies.
In 2007, Hermitage’s offices in Moscow were raided by police who seized corporate records, company seals and tax certificates.
The documents were used by a criminal gang to fraudulently claim a tax refund from the Russian government.
A lawyer who tried to expose the crime, Sergei Magnitsky, was arrested and died in custody in 2009.
Browder and his team have since traced some of the stolen funds around the world. Investigations have begun in Switzerland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Moldova and Cyprus. In America, a law, the Magnitsky Act, was passed to deny visas to and freeze assets of those implicated in his death.
Yet Browder, whose firm is based in London, says the UK authorities have taken no action despite the involvement of British companies receiving funds or acting as agents for those involved in the crime.
In a letter to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) last month, lawyers acting for Hermitage said a company services firm, GSL Law & Consulting, with offices in London, had acted as an agent for some of the companies involved in the fraud. The letter said GSL’s role meant it should not meet HMRC’s “fit and proper” test for companies providing offshore company services.
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Hedge-fund magnate Browder says if he’s assassinated, you’ll know where to look
Hedge-fund magnate and outspoken Kremlin critic Bill Browder told CNBC on Friday that if he’s ever assassinated, there won”t be much mystery about who was responsible.
“At the moment, nothing keeps me protected…if I get assassinated, everyone will know who did it…It would effectively be a declaration of war with the West if they decide to kill me,” he said.
Browder, the CEO and founder of Hermitage Capital Markets, is an American who has been living in London since being kicked out of Russia in 2007 for accusing tax officials of embezzlement. Browder — a one-time fan of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a grandson of the former leader of the Communist Party U.S.A. — has been on an anti-corruption crusade against the Kremlin since the death of his tax attorney, Sergei Magnitsky, in a Moscow prison. Magnitsky is the namesake of the Magnitsky Act, which U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law last December, and gives the Treasury and State Department authority for cracking down on Russian human-rights abusers. That led Russia to retaliate by banning U.S. citizens from adopting Russian children.
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Guriev’s Exile Is a Huge Loss for Russia
When the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum opens next week, a traditional fixture of the event will be conspicuously absent: renowned economist Sergei Guriev.
During the forum, Russian officials will undoubtedly repeat the usual lines about the country’s untapped potential, its attractiveness as a gateway between Asia and Europe and its tremendous investment opportunities. But the other standard phrase used to pitch Russia at these forums — that the country has a “rich, educated human capital” — will sound particularly hollow amid Guriev’s forced exit from Russia.
Two weeks ago, Guriev announced from Paris, where his wife and two children live, that he would not return to Russia for fear of being named as a defendant in a possible third criminal case against former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky. “There is no guarantee that I won’t lose my freedom [in Russia],” he told Ekho Moskvy on May 31. Guriev resigned as rector of the New Economic School, which he had turned into one of the country’s top graduate programs in economics, and from the boards of Sberbank and four other companies.
Guriev’s “crime” was co-authoring a 2011 report for then-President Dmitry Medvedev’s human rights council in which he explained why the second criminal case against Khodorkovsky was unfounded, a conclusion that had been clear even to the most casual observer. In addition, Guriev donated 10,000 rubles ($320) last year to the anti-corruption fund of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is currently facing criminal charges in an embezzlement trial that many consider to be politically driven.
When an investigator from the Investigative Committee appeared in Guriev’s office in April for a third round of questioning, the official unexpectedly pulled out a warrant to seize Guriev’s computer hard drive and asked him if he had an alibi, presumably for a third Khodorkovsky trial.
After this, Guriev concluded that he had quickly gone from being a “witness” in the Khodorkovsky criminal case to effectively becoming a “defendant.”
Shortly thereafter, he fled to Paris. Guriev feared that if he remained in Moscow much longer, investigators would pay another surprise visit, but this time with a new warrant to seize his passport and place him under house arrest.
Guriev’s exit is a tremendous loss for Russia — at least for its progressive elements that want to pull the country in a new, modern direction. Guriev, an internationally recognized economist and former visiting professor at Princeton University, could have worked in any number of Western countries over the past 15 years, but he decided to stay in Russia and try to build a more modern, liberal and democratic Russia. In addition to developing the New Economic School, his other main modernization projects included participation in Open Government, Skolkovo and the president’s human rights council.
As rector and professor at the New Economic School, Guriev’s goal was to train young Russians to become innovative leaders, managers, economists and financial experts capable of modernizing Russia. And he was tremendously successful in this role, with roughly 80 percent of New Economic School graduates working in Russia in top-level positions at leading financial, consulting, real estate development and manufacturing companies.
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Hedge Fund Manager Browder: If I Get Assassinated…
Bill Browder, chief executive and founder of Hermitage Capital Markets, told CNBC the Russian government is “apoplectic” over sanctions imposed on Russian officials that he has campaigned for, and if he gets assassinated, “everyone would know who did it.”
The well-known critic of the Kremlin has been living in London since he was kicked out of Russia for accusing Russian tax officials of embezzlement, in 2007.
Since then, he has repeatedly accused Russia of corruption and has been involved in a high-profile battle with the Russian state over the death of his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who was investigating fraud among Russian officials.
In April, Russia issued an arrest warrant against Browder on charges that he stole shares in gas giant Gazprom fifteen years ago and requested Interpol, the global police agency, to launch a manhunt for the investment banker.
Interpol refused the request but Browder said he feels under constant threat.
“At the moment nothing keeps me protected…If I get assassinated, everyone will know who did it….It would effectively be a declaration of war with the West if they decide to kill me,” he told CNBC in London.
Browder’s colleague Magnitsky was imprisoned and taken ill, and he died later in hospital. Browder has since sought to bring the Russian state to trial over Magnitsky’s death.
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William Browder speaking at ICD Conference in Berlin
A Lecture by William Browder, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder, Hermitage Capital Management
Symposium on Cultural Diplomacy & Human Rights
“Towards a Global Human Rights Culture: The Need for a Collective Alliance in the Protection & Promotion of Human Rights” (Berlin; May 27th – June 1st, 2013) займ онлайн payday loan www.zp-pdl.com zp-pdl.com займ на карту
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Fright follows flight
A growing number of Russians want to emigrate; but even those who leave have cause for fear
Sergei Guriev admits that his wife was right. Two years ago she left for Paris, saying that it was not safe to live under the regime of President Vladimir Putin. Now the leading Russian economist is joining her. The trigger was a request from the authorities to seize his emails, apparently in preparation for a case against him. His crime is unclear: it may have been giving an expert opinion about the legal status of Yukos, once Russia’s largest oil company, which was spectacularly dismembered in a Kremlin-sponsored raid ten years ago.
Guriev’s departure is part of a trend. Garry Kasparov, the chess champion and opposition leader, says it is too risky to return to Russia. Friends of Alexei Navalny, another opposition leader, fear he has left it too late: he faces jail on trumped-up fraud charges.
The mixture of lawlessness and repression is chilling. Overall, nearly a quarter of Russians want to emigrate. The figure is striking: 22%, up from 13% in 2009. The survey is by the Levada centre, Russia’s best-known opinion pollster, which the authorities are harassing because it receives some money from abroad and is therefore a “foreign agent”.
The unhappiest are the middle classes, who should be the biggest beneficiaries of the boom of the past 13 years: 45% of students and 38% of entrepreneurs want to leave, with the highest figures in Moscow and other big cities. So far emigration is a ripple, not a wave. About three-quarters of the discontented say they will stay put. Only 1% of those surveyed are actually taking practical steps to go.
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Civil Society Leaders Urge EU to Pass Magnitsky Sanctions
On June 5, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) group in the European Parliament held a seminar on Russian political prisoners. The event took place on the eve of the “Bolotnaya Square” trial, widely viewed as politically motivated. The participants stressed the urgent need for the EU to take a firm stand with regard to human rights abuses in Russia.
The situation regarding political prisoners in Russia has been deteriorating since 2011, when unprecedented mass protests against fraudulent elections were held all over the country. A group of prominent political leaders, policy experts, and human rights activists gathered to discuss the situation at the European Parliament. They included Lyudmila Alekseeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group; Bill Browder, CEO of Hermitage Capital Management; Anna Karetnikova of the Council of the Human Rights Center “Memorial;” Mikhail Kasyanov, co-leader of the Republican Party of Russia—People’s Freedom Party and a former Russian prime minister; Vadim Klyuvgant, a lawyer for Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Nikolai Kavkazsky; Vladimir Kara-Murza, IMR senior policy advisor and a member of the Coordinating Council of the Russian opposition; and Pavel Khodorkovsky, president of the IMR. Leonidas Donskis, a member of European Parliament and the ALDE Group spokesman on human rights, moderated the seminar. The event was also dedicated to Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s upcoming 50th birthday on June 26.
In his opening remarks, Donskis noted that “the human rights saga in Europe is an interesting combination of Russian, Ukrainian, East European courage and Western organization.” After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the West had high hopes for Russia, as the era of Boris Yeltsin was very promising in terms of democratic development and political freedom. But today Russia is sliding back to the “obese of Soviet legislation,” and Europe is finding itself at a crossroads: should it lower its standards for countries that play a crucial role in international trade, like China and Russia, or should it continue to apply universal standards of human rights and dignity? In Donskis’ opinion, if the standards are lowered, it will be a historic failure for Europe and a betrayal of great minds such as Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Andrei Sakharov, who shaped the entire discourse of human rights. The EU legislator also stressed that Russian political prisoners exist, calling Mikhail Khodorkovsky a symbolic figure in this group, and suggesting that he stopped being just a Russian political prisoner and became a European political prisoner. “As long as corruption exists as an international phenomenon, every fighter against corruption or every fighter for human rights becomes an international figure… These people fight for Europe,” Donskis observed.
Mikhail Kasyanov said there are thousands of cases of human rights abuses in Russia, and about one-third of appeals to the European Court of Human Rights are coming from Russia. But the public is largely unaware of this situation, because “there is a taboo” on discussing it. Kasyanov reminded the audience that Russia is a member of the Council of Europe, and therefore needs to abide by its obligations; Russia has signed up the European Convention on Human Rights, but is not fulfilling its provisions. The former Russian prime minister added that in the case of Mikhail Khodorkovksy and Platon Lebedev, reputable Russian lawyers and independent international experts have been clear that the evidence was fabricated, and that these two people should therefore be released. Kasyanov also recalled the case of Sergei Magnitsky and the sanctions that were imposed by the U.S. against officials involved in his death, as well as against other human rights abusers. He called for similar measures to be undertaken by the EU, emphasizing that they do not target Russia, but rather deprive criminals and human rights abusers of privileges.
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