Posts Tagged ‘browder’
William Browder: Many people in London or Geneva have blood on their hands from handling blood money from former Soviet states
William Browder, the Founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, turned campaigner and began to wage war for justice after one of his lawyers, Sergei Magnitsky, was killed in a Moscow prison.
As a result of Browder’s relentless campaign, the US adopted the so-called Magnitsky Act which imposes restrictions against a number of Russian citizens allegedly involved in Magnitsky’s tragic death. Magnitsky’s “crime” was that he uncovered a huge corruption scheme with trails leading to Russian official circles. In an interview for The Ukrainian Week, William Browder spoke about his fight for justice.
UW: What was the Magnitsky case all about?
Effectively what happened in the Magnitsky case is that the Russian government has refused to hold anyone accountable for the false arrest, torture and death of Sergey Magnitsky, or for the crimes that he uncovered. As a result the only way that we could get any measure of justice was to look outside of Russia in the form of different sanctions passed in different countries, freezing the assets of people who did this and so on. In order to do that, we had to tell the story of what happened to Sergey Magnitsky. The Russian government has been trying to thwart our every step of the way in terms of our objective of getting sanctions.
One of their options was through this latest High Court case in London which was filed by an unemployed ex-police officer, Pavel Karpov, in which he accuses us of libel. The objective of this was also to get an injunction so we could not say things about him or others. The High Court threw the case out saying that it was an abuse of the courts and that the whole approach here was artificial and incredible. As a result, the main tool they were trying to use to silence us failed and so, a big barrier to our speaking the truth and seeking justice has been taken away.
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Europe Urged To Adopt Russia Sanctions After Brutal Death Of Whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky
European nations could begin imposing tough sanctions on Russia for its failure to investigate the suspicious death of a whistleblowing lawyer, who was exposing official corruption.
The body which advises the Council of Europe has said European nations should adopt “targeted sanctions” against individuals involved in the death of Russian tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, unless immediate steps are taken by Russia to investigate his death. Human rights campaigners have greeted the recommendation as a key victory.
Possible sanctions may include more visa bans and the freezing of accounts “if the competent authorities in Russia fail to respond adequately to its demands within a reasonable period of time,” the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
The resolution approved on Tuesday, named ‘Refusing impunity for the killers of Sergei Magnitsky’, urged the Russian authorities to fully investigate the circumstances and background of Magnitsky’s death, and the possible criminal responsibility of all officials involved.
PACE does not have the power to enact the sanctions, only recommend that European member states uphold them. Parliamentarians described themselves as “appalled” by Magnitsky’s death in pre-trial detention in Moscow in 2009, and by the fact that none of the persons responsible have yet been punished.
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Sergei Magnitsky – the final insult: Russia continues to ‘desecrate the memory’ of the whistleblower lawyer
irst he was imprisoned. There he died after being denied medical treatment. Then he was put on posthumous trial. Now the Russian lawyer who dared to expose a £140m fraud is accused of perpetrating the crime himself.
Russian investigators have opened a second posthumous criminal investigation into the whistleblower lawyer Sergei Magnitsky who exposed an alleged £140m fraud by Moscow tax officials, it was claimed.
Mr Magnitsky, who died in a Russian prison in 2009 after suffering beatings and being deprived of medical treatment, became the first dead person to be put on trial in modern Russia when he was last year convicted of tax fraud in proceedings described by critics as evidence of “Sovietisation”. The Kremlin denied the prosecution was an act of revenge to distract attention from corrupt officials but supporters said a further criminal investigation has now come to light, this time accusing Mr Magnitsky of the massive theft which he had himself uncovered.
The death of the 37-year-old auditor opened a new rift between Moscow and Washington, which passed a “Magnitsky Act” banning nearly 20 Russian officials implicated in the lawyer’s death from the United States and threatening to add more senior figures to the list.
Bill Browder, the British-American financier who employed Mr Magnitsky and has since led the campaign to expose corruption in Russia, said that the lawyer had now been named as the ringleader of four suspects accused of masterminding the $230m (£140m) tax refund theft.
Campaigners said the investigation, disclosed in official papers obtained on behalf of the Magnitsky family, belied efforts by President Vladimir Putin to improve Russia’s international standing ahead of next month’s Winter Olympics by releasing prisoners including the former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and members of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot.
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Attacks reignite debate on Russia investments
Russia has long faced challenges assuring would-be investors about its stability relative to Western and Asian nations, or even among other emerging markets. Now a series of terrorist attacks could make that challenge worse.
Two bombing attacks over a 24-hour period this week killed at least 33 people and have heightened worries that Russia may face further strikes leading up to the Sochi Winter Olympics, scheduled to begin in early February.
Alexander Kliment, emerging markets analyst and director of Russia at Eurasia Group, said that the attacks, if they continue, are likely to negatively affect investor perceptions on Russia.
“A certain amount of volatility and violence has been the norm in the North Caucasus,” he said. “However, if we see sustained violence outside of North Caucasus—in ‘European Russia’—that could scare investors and have an adverse effect on funds’ decisions.”
The attacks raise bigger questions about stability in Russia and how much ability President Vladimir Putin really has to control such situations, Kliment said.
Russia already faces low stock valuations compared with other industrialized nations. Russian stocks typically trade at below six times earnings, making the country one of the cheapest emerging markets. The S&P trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.6 as of Tuesday.
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Former prosecutor feels heat over Russia involvement
A prominent Manhattan white-collar criminal defense lawyer is the subject of a federal court grievance complaint, The Post has learned.
John Moscow, a former prosecutor now working at BakerHostetler, shouldn’t be allowed to represent several companies accused of funneling dirty Russian cash into the US to buy pricey Manhattan real estate, according to the complaint.
Moscow was hired in November 2008 by a hedge fund mogul to investigate the Russian money trail.
That conflict of interest should bar him from his current role as defense counsel to the allegedly dirty companies, William Browder, the feisty hedge fund manager who hired him, claims.
Browder says he gave Moscow confidential information that led to federal charges against Prevezon Holdings, part of the allegedly shady real estate scheme.
Moscow represents Prevezon and a slew of other defendants in a civil forfeiture case brought by US Attorney Preet Bharara.
“The same guy I was baring my soul to is now turning to the other side,” Browder told The Post.
“It’s the most shocking thing I’ve ever seen in the legal profession.”
Browder hired Moscow to help him win the freedom of his hedge fund’s lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, who was arrested in Russia.
Browder said following the money trail through subpoenas was one of the tactics Moscow had suggested to locate the persons behind the lawyer’s imprisonment.
The lawyer had been looking into an identity theft ring that hit Browder’s Hermitage hedge fund — at the time a large investor in Russia.
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Bill Browder and Hermitage Fund by Peter Ireland
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William Browder: The man behind the Magnitsky List
William Browder is trying to hold to account Russians who he claims are responsible for the death of his lawyer, and US officials have drawn up a blacklist of those said to have been involved in the case. This week, the BBC has learned, new names are expected to appear on the list.
Browder got the phone call in the early morning of 17 November 2009. It was an unseasonably warm day in London, and he was still in bed.
A colleague told him the news. Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who had uncovered what he said was a $230m (£140m) tax refund fraud in Moscow and was being held in a detention centre, was dead.
Years later Browder still remembers how he felt when he heard. “It was like a knife in the heart,” he said.
Browder got out of bed and raced to the offices of his hedge fund company, Hermitage Capital, in the Golden Square area of London. He sent out a press statement pledging an independent investigation into Magnitsky’s death.
On that day and in the years that followed, Browder approached the case in the way he was trained at Stanford business school – methodically. He analysed documents and focused on the money.
Browder pushed people in Washington to support a bill, the Magnitsky Act, that was signed into law in December 2012. It featured a list of 18 individuals, including three from Russia’s interior ministry. Magnitsky’s List, as it is known, includes people “who signed the documents”, claimed Browder, that led to the lawyer’s imprisonment and death.
The US government will deny visas to these individuals, if they request one, as well as freeze assets in the US.
Browder’s pursuit of justice is both idealistic and single-minded. His critics say he has tried to shape US foreign policy for his own narrow goals and has lost sight of the bigger picture.
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Washington: Europe Soon To Receive Magnitsky Law?
The pessimistic attitude clouding the American capital has been aggravated by the fiasco the “Obamacare” health insurance reform has set in place. To date, barely 10,000 Americans could sign up on the site created specifically to compare insurances and register.
Yet, at the heart of this depressed and discouraging climate are “everyday” citizens showing that one person can change the course of history. On Saturday, Nov. 16, a reception took place at 7 pm, organized by Freedom House president David J. Kramer. French-Russian journalist Elena Servettaz presented her book, “Why Europe Needs a Magnitsky Law: Should the EU Follow the U.S.?”
Servettaz, also a contributor to American and Russian media, collected contributions from 54 people involved in the Magnitsky affair. A brief recall:
About four years ago, Sergei Magnitsky, a 37-year-old lawyer, died in a Moscow prison, beaten to death by the guards. His crime? Denouncing the biggest fiscal fraud ever committed in Russia. Even more, this fraud had been the work of state officials associated with a mafia gang (even if the distinction between the two is difficult to discern). Magnitsky, according to human rights lawyer William Browden, had noted the disappearance of $230 million owed to the state of Russia. While he wanted to get justice, he was arrested by those responsible for said embezzlement.
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Fair Trials International group urges reforms for Interpol arrests
The case of a Russian environmental activist who fled the country but was later arrested, despite finding sanctuary in Finland, reveals how political motives can sometimes improperly influence international police work, a London-based group said this week.
The international police network in question is Interpol, which represents 190 member countries, including the United States, allowing them to issue international warrants or request information about suspects facing criminal charges at home.
Fair Trials International, an advocacy group for those arrested abroad, issued a report early Thursday asserting that the agency is used by some of its members — including Russia, Belarus, Turkey, Iran and Venezuela — to pursue political ends.
Pyotr Silaev, a 28-year-old Russian who took part in a protest in Moscow in July 2010 against the destruction of a forest in the suburb of Khimki, illustrates how Interpol can be wrongly used, according to Robert Jackman, a Fair Trials spokesman.
When police began arresting some of the demonstrators and accused Silaev of hooliganism, he fled to Finland, which accepted him as a political refugee.
Later, Silaev traveled to Spain and was arrested there on a Russian request issued through Interpol. He spent eight days in prison and six months stuck in Spain while fighting extradition to Russia. A Spanish court eventually refused to extradite him, ruling that his arrest was politically motivated. Fair Trials is trying to get his name stricken from the Interpol database.
When Moscow police wanted Interpol help to arrest William Browder, the investment banker who campaigned for the United States to punish Russia for human rights abuses, Browder quickly found a way to give the international agency his side of the story.
Interpol promptly declared the request to locate Browder — who fought for passage of the U.S. Magnitsky Act — politically motivated and deleted the entry from its database. Browder’s situation showed that individuals are shielded from abuse by Interpol, according to Ronald K. Noble, the agency’s head.
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