Posts Tagged ‘browder’
Russia Requests Interpol Warrant for Browder
The Interior Ministry has officially requested that British investment fund manager and “Magnitsky list” campaigner William Browder be placed on Interpol’s international wanted list.
In a statement released by the ministry, it was confirmed that a request for the arrest of the Hermitage Capital CEO had been made by the General Procurator’s Office, Interfax reported.
“In accordance with current legislation and on the basis of documents received from the General Procurator of the Russian Federation, the Interpol Bureau for Russia have sent a request to the General Secretariat to issue an international arrest warrant for Browder, William Felix, a citizen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, born in 1964,” the statement read.
Browder is wanted in connection with the illegal acquisition of 131 million Gazprom shares at domestic-market prices between 1999 and 2004. As a result of Browder’s alleged dealings, the state lost 2.9 billion rubles, the statement says.
In May, the ministry asked Interpol to issue a ‘blue notice’ for Browder, which would have required all 190 member states to collect additional information about his identity, location and activities. The Interpol General Secretariat rejected that request however, citing “the predominantly political nature” of the case.
In July, Browder was tried in absentia in Moscow’s Tverskoi District Court for stealing more than $15 million in state funds and was sentenced to nine years in prison. His former lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was also tried posthumously and found guilty.
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INTERPOL cannot be used by the Russian Federation to seek the arrest of Mr William Browder
LYON, France – On 24 May 2013, the Independent Commission for the Control of INTERPOL’s Files (CCF) concluded that the Russian Federation’s use of INTERPOL’s channels to seek information concerning Mr William Browder was predominantly political in nature and therefore contrary to INTERPOL’s rules and regulations. It recommended that all data relating to Russian Federation’s request concerning Mr Browder be deleted from INTERPOL’s databases.
The General Secretariat immediately implemented the CCF’s recommendation, and all INTERPOL member countries were informed of the CCF’s findings and recommendation as well as the General Secretariat’s actions.
Today, Friday 26 July, INTERPOL received another request from the National Central Bureau of Moscow concerning Mr Browder, this time seeking to locate and arrest Mr Browder with a view to his extradition on a charge of ‘qualified swindling’ as defined by the Russian Penal Code.
INTERPOL considers this charge to be covered by the previous decision of May 2013. Therefore all information related to this request for Mr Browder’s arrest has been deleted from INTERPOL’s databases and all INTERPOL member countries have been informed accordingly.
INTERPOL has taken the decision to make its decisions and actions public in response to the Russian Federation’s request, given their public statement on the matter.
INTERPOL has no further comment at this time. займы без отказа онлайн займы zp-pdl.com https://www.zp-pdl.com срочный займ на карту онлайн
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Libel suit over Magnitsky allegations challenged in London court
British investment fund manager Bill Browder has asked a London court to throw out a libel suit brought against him by a Russian former police officer who denies allegations that he played a part in the death of the lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, court documents show.
Pavel Karpov, a former Russian Interior Ministry investigator who is on the “Magnitsky list” of people barred from the United States over the lawyer’s death, is suing Browder over four videos and two articles linking Karpov to the case.
Magnitsky, who was acting for Browder and his Hermitage Capital Management at the time, was arrested after accusing Russian officials of a $230-million fraud, and died in prison in suspicious circumstances.
He was posthumously found guilty of tax evasion by a Moscow court on July 11 this year and Browder was convicted in absentia and sentenced to nine years in jail in the same trial, which was criticised by both the United States and the European Union.
Browder’s campaign to vindicate Magnitsky helped to bring about the U.S. Magnitsky Act, which bars Russians suspected of involvement in the lawyer’s death from the United States and freezes their assets there.
During a two-day hearing at the London High Court, which Browder attended, his lawyers argued that Karpov’s libel suit against him was an abuse of process.
“An avowed purpose of (Karpov) in pursuing the claims, to attack his inclusion on the United States government’s Magnitsky list, is not an appropriate use of the process of the court,” the lawyers wrote in a document presented to the judge.
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Browder asks court to throw out Magnitsky libel lawsuit
Bill Browder, the UK-based fund manager behind the US Magnitsky Act, is asking the High Court to throw out an extraordinary libel lawsuit brought against him by a Russian he accused of being involved in Russia’s biggest tax fraud.
Mr Browder has become a hate figure for the Russian leadership after lobbying Congress to adopt the Magnitsky law last year. The law imposed sanctions on Russians allegedly involved in the $230m fraud and the death in custody of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer Mr Browder employed to investigate it.
The defamation case has been brought by Russian-based Pavel Karpov, a former policeman who is suing over allegations on a campaigning website run by Mr Browder.
Magnitsky died in a Russian jail four years ago but he was convicted of tax evasion this month in a posthumous Russian trial that drew widespread criticism in the west.
Mr Browder’s campaign has accused Mr Karpov of being involved both in the fraud and of being among police who arranged for Magnitsky’s arrest and torture in jail. Mr Karpov’s libel writ says those claims are false.
The case is bound to reignite concerns around libel tourism and that London’s courts are being used by the rich and powerful who have tenuous links with the UK but want to exploit its claimant-friendly rules.
Mr Browder alleges the Russian government is ultimately behind the case and is using it to attempt to force him to take down videos on his website.
Antony White QC, Mr Browder’s barrister, claims in court papers that Mr Karpov “does not have the means to pay for this litigation himself” and is relying on an unidentified friend.
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Retired Russian police officer accused of complicity in tax fraud and murder of whistleblowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky ‘receiving Kremlin help’
A retired Russian police officer accused of complicity in a massive tax fraud and the murder of whistleblowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was claimed to be receiving Kremlin help in bringing a multi-million pound libel case in London.
Lieutenant Colonel Pavel Karpov, an unemployed former interior ministry investigator who lives in a luxury Moscow flat, is suing British businessman William Browder, a millionaire hedge fund investor who employed Mr Magnitsky and is leading a campaign against corruption in the Russian government, for substantial damages in the High Court.
A pre-trial hearing was told yesterday that the case is likely to cost a minimum of £6m and that Mr Karpov has admitted he cannot afford to fund the proceedings himself. He is refusing to name a businessman friend who he insists is guaranteeing bank loans to fund the case and he says has no connection with the Russian state.
Mr Browder is seeking to have the libel suit, which arises from a series of internet postings made on his behalf about the Magnitsky scandal, thrown out as an abuse of the legal system on grounds including the claim that Mr Karpov has no links with Britain. In turn, Mr Karpov is seeking to have elements of Mr Browder’s defence struck out, including any suggestion that he could have had a hand in or responsibility for Mr Magnitsky’s death.
The case is likely to raise fresh debate about the use of the English courts for so-called “libel tourism”. Mr Karpov has said he is justified in bringing his proceedings in part because the website used to post the material he claims is defamatory is based in the United Kingdom.
Antony White QC, for Mr Browder and his company, Hermitage Capital Management, told the court there was “evidence” that previous libel proceedings brought by Mr Karpov in Russia linked to the Magnitsky case had been instigated from within the Kremlin, adding there were grounds to suspect that a similar arrangement was in place in the London case.
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Bill Browder, The Brit Fighting Russia Death Threats And Libel Suits To Take On The Kremlin
A Russian policeman planning to sue a British hedge fund boss through British courts, for alleging he was part of a conspiracy to torture and murder lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, could end up “driving a truck through British law”.
The case, if a judge allows it to be heard, will be a true test for the long battle for libel reform in the UK.
On Wednesday, a judge will consider whether an hitherto unknown Russian official, Lieutenant Colonel Pavel Karpov, can use the British justice system and British lawyers to fight his case.
Russian officials have called financier Bill Browder a fraudster and a fantasist, and he is the subject of death threats, legal battles and diplomatic crises.
But, he says, it will not deter him from fighting for justice for a friend who he believes died at the hands of Russian authorities.
Browder alleges Russian officials falsely imprisoned, tortured and killed his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky after both he and Browder blew the whistle on a massive scandal, involving criminal gangs colluding with Russian authorities to steal millions from Russian taxpayers.
“They are so desperately trying to cover it up, that they are willing to kill the key whistleblower, prosecute him posthumously, and pursue me in every possible way, including threatening my life,” Browder told The Huffington Post UK.
“We weren’t the main victims of the fraud, the Russian people were the victims. But the other victim was Sergei, who exposed the fraud. When he died, it changed my life. I couldn’t live comfortably knowing he died because of me.”
A British judge will hear arguments this week from both sides as to whether the case is an “abuse” of the British legal system, because it concerns a Russian litigant.
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Punishing Magnitsky One More Time
Thursday’s ruling by Moscow’s Tverskoi District Court that convicted the late Sergei Magnitsky, the Hermitage Capital lawyer who died in pretrial detention in 2009, of tax evasion charges shows how far Russia is willing to go to discredit itself.
Simultaneously, the court found Hermitage Capital CEO William Browder guilty of colluding with Magnitsky to create an illegal tax-break scheme using two of Hermitage Capital’s subsidiaries in the republic of Kalmykia. On Thursday, Browder was sentenced in absentia to nine years in prison for allegedly failing to pay more than $15 million in taxes in 2001.
Following Magnitsky’s death in November 2009, the case against him was dropped. Nonetheless, the case was resumed in August 2011, loosely based on a Constitutional Court decision stating that posthumous trials in Russia can be held when the family of a dead person requests to clear their relative of charges. But Magnitsky’s relatives never requested the trial against Sergei for the obvious reason that they don’t trust the authorities’ impartiality or their motives. What they did request and demand was an investigation into the cause of his death and a fair, honest trial against those who perpetrated the crimes against him.
But the Investigative Committee closed that investigation early this year, claiming that no crimes had been committed. The deputy head of the prison where Magnitsky was being held was acquitted, and the prosecutor who brought charges for criminal negligence against a prison doctor, who was responsible for Magnitsky’s health while in detention, suddenly withdrew his charges in early April, claiming that there was no corpus delicti.
Even before Magnitsky’s arrest, Hermitage Capital had informed the authorities that government officials had used a fraudulent tax-refund scheme to steal $230 million in state funds. After that, the officials implicated in the crime organized Magnitsky’s arrest and his inhumane conditions in a pretrial detention center. No charges were ever filed against those individuals.
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Punishing Magnitsky One More Time
Thursday’s ruling by Moscow’s Tverskoi District Court that convicted the late Sergei Magnitsky, the Hermitage Capital lawyer who died in pretrial detention in 2009, of tax evasion charges shows how far Russia is willing to go to discredit itself.
Simultaneously, the court found Hermitage Capital CEO William Browder guilty of colluding with Magnitsky to create an illegal tax-break scheme using two of Hermitage Capital’s subsidiaries in the republic of Kalmykia. On Thursday, Browder was sentenced in absentia to nine years in prison for allegedly failing to pay more than $15 million in taxes in 2001.
Following Magnitsky’s death in November 2009, the case against him was dropped. Nonetheless, the case was resumed in August 2011, loosely based on a Constitutional Court decision stating that posthumous trials in Russia can be held when the family of a dead person requests to clear their relative of charges. But Magnitsky’s relatives never requested the trial against Sergei for the obvious reason that they don’t trust the authorities’ impartiality or their motives. What they did request and demand was an investigation into the cause of his death and a fair, honest trial against those who perpetrated the crimes against him.
But the Investigative Committee closed that investigation early this year, claiming that no crimes had been committed. The deputy head of the prison where Magnitsky was being held was acquitted, and the prosecutor who brought charges for criminal negligence against a prison doctor, who was responsible for Magnitsky’s health while in detention, suddenly withdrew his charges in early April, claiming that there was no corpus delicti.
Even before Magnitsky’s arrest, Hermitage Capital had informed the authorities that government officials had used a fraudulent tax-refund scheme to steal $230 million in state funds. After that, the officials implicated in the crime organized Magnitsky’s arrest and his inhumane conditions in a pretrial detention center. No charges were ever filed against those individuals.
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Libel tourism fiasco of Russian ‘torturer’ using our courts to bring claim against British businessman
A former Russian police officer banned from travelling to America after being accused of torture and murder has been allowed to bring an explosive libel claim against a British businessman in London’s High Court.
The case, which will cost the UK taxpayer tens of thousands of pounds, is likely to be one of the most expensive ever heard in Britain.
It is being brought by Lieutenant Colonel Pavel Karpov, one of the men accused of involvement in the arrest, torture and murder of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky who died in Moscow in 2009.
And it follows a high-profile campaign led by Mr Magnitsky’s former boss, William Browder, who wants more than 60 Russian suspects held to account for the lawyer’s death.
But Mr Karpov has hired top UK lawyers to sue Mr Browder for defamation in a trial that opens on July 24. The case is cited as one of the worst examples of libel tourism – where foreign nationals with little or no connection to the UK use the High Court to settle their disputes.
Last night senior Labour MP Chris Bryant said: ‘It is absolutely ludicrous a man I hope will never set foot in this country except to face criminal proceedings himself is able to abuse British libel law in this way.’
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