Posts Tagged ‘browder’
Russia asks Interpol to track Magnitsky campaigner
The diminutive US-born businessman and his entourage of one or two assistants has become a familiar sight in the European Parliament in Brussels, which Bill Browder visits several times a year to make the case for EU sanctions on Russian officials linked to the alleged murder of his former employee, whistleblower accountant Sergei Magnitsky.
He is also a frequent visitor in Berlin, The Hague, Paris, Rome, Stockholm and Warsaw.
But he is a wanted man in Russia, which last month issued a warrant for his arrest on charges that he illegally obtained shares in its national energy champion, Gazprom, 15 years ago.
He is also wanted in other ways.
Following a series of anonymous death threats, he now lives in London under the protection of the Special Branch of the British police.
When he travels, the UK liaises with security services in other European countries to keep him safe.
But if the Kremlin gets its way, his travels could come to an end.
The Russian interior ministry on 7 May filed a request with Interpol, the international police body in Lyon, France, to issue a so-called All Points Bulletin (APB) on Browder.
If it agrees, authorities in all 190 Interpol member states will be obliged to alert Russia of his movements, enabling it to request his detention and extradition.
The police body will consider Russia’s demand at a meeting on Thursday (23 May).
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Russia asks Interpol to monitor movements of British hedge fund boss Bill Browder
Russia has applied to Interpol to monitor the travel and whereabouts of a British hedge fund boss wanted by Moscow who is at the heart of a diplomatic stand-off over the alleged killing of whistle-blowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
The international policing body will decide this week whether to approve the request from the Russian authorities to issue an “All Points Bulletin” for US-born financier Bill Browder, whose Hermitage Capital Management employed Mr Magnitsky prior to his death in a Russian prison in 2009.
The death of Mr Magnitsky, who died at the age of 37 after being beaten and then denied essential medical treatment, has become a symbol of corruption in Russia and prompted a law in the United States imposing visa bans and freezing the assets of officials involved in the alleged killing.
A Russian court last month issued a warrant for the arrest in absentia of Mr Browder, who has led a campaign for justice for Mr Magnitsky, on tax evasion charges which the businessman said are part of a politically-motivated vendetta against him by Russian president Vladimir Putin.
The Independent understands that the application from the Russian Interior Ministry stops short of a request for a so-called Interpol “red notice” requesting the arrest of a wanted individual.
Instead it will request Interpol’s 190 member countries to alert Moscow to his whereabouts, potentially allowing the Russian authorities to make a direct demand for him to be detained if he travels abroad.
An Interpol committee will meet on Thursday to decide whether to accept the Russian request, which can be rejected if it is found to breach Article Three of its constitution which states that it is ‘strictly forbidden for the organization to undertake any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character’.
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British tycoon William Browder fears extradition to Russia
A British businessman is facing extradition from the UK to Russia after Moscow issued a request for an Interpol “blue notice” to locate and arrest him.
William Browder, a US-born businessman based in London who is campaigning against Russian officials implicated in the death of Sergei Magnitsky, his former lawyer, said the warrant meant that he risked being sent to Russia, tortured and killed if he were to travel anywhere in the world.
The move came to light on a day in which President Putin’s use of the courts to constrain freedom of speech was highlighted, with the Levada Centre, Russia’s only independent polling organisation, saying that it might have to close because of legal harassment.
Human rights organisations detect similar political motivation behind a crackdown on NGOs in Russia.
Mr Browder’s London-based company, Hermitage Capital Management, was one of the largest foreign investors in Russia from the mid 1990s until it became the victim of a massive tax fraud in 2007. He hired Mr Magnitsky to investigate.
The lawyer concluded that officials from the Russian Interior Ministry had colluded with police and organised criminals in a $230 million (£150 million) scam, but Mr Magnitsky was then arrested and accused of the fraud that he had apparently exposed.
In March he was posthumously put on trial, having died while in pre-trial detention. Mr Browder was named as an absent co-defendant.
Mr Browder said that Russia had now formally requested Interpol to lodge an “All Points Bulletin” to locate him. The organisation’s oversight committee, the Commission for the Control of Interpol’s files, will rule on the application this week.
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Russia wants Bill Browder on Interpol list
Last month, Moscow issued an arrest warrant against the founder of Hermitage Capital management on charges that he stole shares in gas giant Gazprom 15 years ago.
Mr Browder said the action was a “politically-motivated” response to his campaign to expose a criminal network linked to the death in detention four years ago of his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who uncovered an alleged $230m (£150m) fraud against the Russian state.
The request will be considered by Interpol’s commission this Thursday and Friday. A so-called “blue notice” would require all 190 member countries “to provide information about an individual’s location and activities” and could be used for arrest and extradition.
Mr Browder was a prominent Russian investor before being barred entry in 2006. The following year, Mr Magnitsky unearthed evidence of a huge alleged tax fraud by a criminal group that included officials in the police and tax authorities, and went public.
He was later jailed on disputed tax evasion charges and died in prison in November 2009 after being denied medical help. Mr Browder has since campaigned for justice and sparked a major diplomatic incident after succeeding in having 60 Russians – including senior state officials – barred from the US. Russia responded by banning US adoptions of Russian children and launching a controversial posthumous trial of Mr Magnitsky.
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Russia wants Interpol to impose ‘All Points Bulletin’ on British hedge fund boss Bill Browder
Russia has applied to Interpol to monitor the travel and whereabouts of a British hedge fund boss wanted by Moscow who is at the heart of a diplomatic stand-off over the alleged killing of whistle-blowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
The international policing body will decide this week whether to approve the request from the Russian authorities to issue an “All Points Bulletin” for US-born financier Bill Browder, whose Heritage Capital Management employed Mr Magnitsky prior to his death in a Russian prison in 2009.
The death of Mr Magnitsky, who died at the age of 37 after being beaten and then denied essential medical treatment, has become a symbol of corruption in Russia and prompted a law in the United States imposing visa bans and freezing the assets of officials involved in the alleged killing.
A Russian court last month issued a warrant for the arrest in absentia of Mr Browder, who has led a campaign for justice for Mr Magnitsky, on tax evasion charges which the businessman said are part of a politically-motivated vendetta against him by Russian president Vladimir Putin.
The Independent understands that the application from the Russian Interior Ministry stops short of a request for a so-called Interpol “red notice” requiring the arrest of a wanted individual.
Instead it will require Interpol’s 190 member countries to alert Moscow to his whereabouts, potentially allowing the Russian authorities to make a direct demand for him to be detained if he travels abroad.
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Bill Browder Speech – Oslo Freedom Forum 2013
Bill Browder gave a speech at the Oslo Freedom Forum on 13 May 2013. He was telling delegates about the case of his murdered lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, the ongoing cover-up of his death and how they are now putting Sergei himself on trial posthumously.
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Bill Browder: I am Russia’s Biggest Enemy over Magnitsky Act
British hedge fund manager Bill Browder said he was now the Russian state’s single biggest enemy because of the Magnitsky Act, a US law approved last year to punish Russian officials thought to have been responsible for the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
Browder told the Oslo Freedom Forum that the act, which targets 18 named Russians subject to visa bans and asset freezes in the US, “really touches them” and that Russian president Vladimir Putin was “going completely out of his mind” over the repercussions.
In retaliation for the act, which it deemed “absurd’, Russia banned 18 Americans from entering the country.
Targeted sanctions and freezing of visa applications are “a new technology of fighting human rights abuse”, according to Browder, who is a British citizen but American by birth.
Founder of Hermitage Capital Management, Browder moved from the UK to Russia in 1996 to invest in newly privatised countries in Eastern Europe.
“My father was the biggest communist in America, so I said I’m gonna become the biggest capitalist in eastern Europe,” joked Browder. “How do you rebel against a family of communists? You put up a suit and become a capitalist.”
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One Man Against the Kremlin
William F. Browder has succeeded in making the Kremlin very angry, which is perhaps the best he could hope for after a remarkable three-year campaign to hold Russian government officials accountable for the wrongful death of Sergei L. Magnitsky, a 37-year-old lawyer, in a Moscow prison in 2009.
Luckily for Mr. Browder, when Russia’s leaders get really mad, they tend to spray the landscape with ammunition that often ends up hitting themselves in the feet, sometimes in the face.
From his London office, decorated with wall-to-wall framed newspaper articles about his case, Mr. Browder keeps turning each incoming attack into further proof that he is dealing with what he calls an evil, murderous, duplicitous and vengeful regime headed by President Vladimir V. Putin.
“What is the crux of the matter?” asked Mr. Browder, a U.S.-born British citizen, answering a question about the recent arrest warrant issued against him by a Moscow court.
“The crux is that in Russia, there is a kleptocracy run by Putin, and all the guys around him,” he said, warming to a familiar theme. “They’re not in their job for the execution of public service; their job is to steal money.”
On the face of it, the Browder vs. Russia match is uneven: One Man Against the Kremlin is almost a comic book title. In fact, it leveled out last December when the U.S. Congress, after heavy lobbying by Mr. Browder, adopted the so-called Magnitsky list, which imposes sanctions on 18 Russian officials alleged to have been complicit in the lawyer’s mistreatment. At that moment, Mr. Browder’s crusade turned into a major diplomatic onslaught, adding another issue to an already tense U.S.-Russia relationship.
Mr. Browder said that the Russian reaction, notably a ban on the adoption of Russian children by Americans, was aimed at Europe, where similar sanctions against Russian officials — visa bans and a freezing of assets — could hurt members of a governing elite who have chosen to shelter their assets, and in some cases their families, there.
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Reversal of fortune
William Browder, AB’85, was once the biggest capitalist in Russia. After his lawyer was tortured and died in jail, he became one of the Kremlin’s fiercest enemies.
It seems so long ago now, the moment he thought he’d escaped the worst. In 2007, almost two years after being stripped of his visa and expelled from Russia—his home and headquarters for nearly a decade, the place where he made an immense, improbable fortune—investment banker William Browder, AB’85, was on the phone with his lawyer, listening to him explain the huge fraud Browder had narrowly avoided. The scheme had been elaborate, involving a series of phony court filings secretly expropriating $1 billion from his firm, Hermitage Capital Management, to organized criminals and corrupt government officials.
But when the perpetrators arrived at the banks to claim the money they’d stolen, they found nothing there. The accounts were empty. Wary after his expulsion, Browder had quietly withdrawn everything. Weeks after the failed theft, his lawyer pieced together what had happened. “And I began to laugh sort of nervously, but happily,” Browder recalls, “because we had successfully avoided this them grabbing our assets.” His lawyer, a 36-year-old Russian named Sergei Magnitsky, didn’t laugh.
Instead he warned Browder, “Russian stories never end this way.”
For Magnitsky, the story ended in death. Looking deeper into the attempted theft, he uncovered another crime, a $230 million tax fraud linked to the same shell companies and the same criminals and corrupt officials who’d tried to defraud Browder’s firm. When Magnitsky reported what he’d found to the authorities, he was arrested and accused of the crime himself. He died almost 12 months later in a Russian jail cell, sick and thin and bruised. Investigators later concluded that he was tortured.
For Browder, anguished and transformed by Magnitsky’s death, the story isn’t over. Once the largest foreign portfolio investor in Russia, whose conduct typified to some the recklessness and rapacity of post-Soviet capitalism, Browder has become a crusader for human rights. Once among Vladimir Putin’s most vociferous cheerleaders, firm in his belief—despite others’ skepticism, and despite Putin’s own encroachments on business and civil liberties—that the Russian president was acting in the best interests of his people, Browder has now become a vehement enemy of the Russian state.
Mostly, he’s earned Russia’s ire by telling Magnitsky’s story to anyone who will listen. For three years Browder has lobbied Western governments to enact sanctions against the Russian officials involved in Magnitsky’s detention, brutal treatment, and death—laws “naming names, banning visas, and freezing accounts,” as he puts it. His relentlessness led to the Magnitsky Act, signed into US law last December, which prevents complicit Russian officials from visiting the United States or investing money, depositing assets, and owning property here. It also freezes their current assets. Vigorously opposed by the Kremlin, the Magnitsky Act has soured US relations with Moscow and earned Browder a fresh round of death threats and reprisals from the country where he once lived.
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