Posts Tagged ‘fcpa’
‘Libel tourism’ knocked back by UK court
Two rulings Monday from the U.K. High Court will make it harder for foreign litigants to use libel tourism — a practice known to pose a serious threat to press freedom and free speech far beyond Britain.
The High Court dismissed a libel suit against William Browder and his company brought by a former Russian police officer. Browder, left, a U.K. citizen who lives in London, had accused Pavel Karpov of being one of several corrupt officials complicit in the detention and death of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who worked in Moscow for Browder and his company, Hermitage Capital Management.
Judge Peregrine Simon said Karpov had insufficient links to the U.K. ‘There is a degree of artificiality about his seeking to protect his reputation in this country,’ the judge said.
A second libel case unrelated to Browder’s was also thrown out by the High Court Monday. Serbian tobacco tycoon Stanko Subotic had sued banker Ratko Knezevic for libel. Knezevic had accused Subotic of murder, drug smuggling, and undergoing plastic surgery to hide his identify. Only one copy of the newspaper that carried the allegations, Politika, was found in Britain.
The court ruled that Subotic had suffered no damage in England even though there had been ‘minimal’ internet publication.
Libel tourism became widely known and feared after American writer Rachel Ehrenfeld was ordered to pay damages of £30,000 to a Saudi businessman she accused of funding terrorism. Only 23 copies of her offending book were sold in Britian, all through internet sales.
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Journalist honored for reporting Russian graft
A Russian journalist who reported on the tax fraud uncovered by murdered lawyer Sergei Magnitsky has been awarded the 2013 Knight International Journalism Award.
Roman Anin writes for Novaya Gazeta.
He began a series of reports in 2011 that told how a $230 million tax fraud uncovered by Magnitsky was orchestrated.
Anin also reported that similar frauds continued after Magnitsky’s death.
Magnitsky was jailed without trial after he said Russian officials were helping gangsters collect fraudulent tax refunds. He died after nearly a year in jail in 2009 after being denied medical attention.
One of Anin’s articles described how tax officials connected with the frauds were later promoted to senior positions at the Russian Defense Ministry.
Five journalists at Anin’s paper, Novaya Gazeta, have been murdered for their work since 2000, according to the International Center for Journalists.
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Moscow steps up battle against Browder
The Anti-Terrorist Department (Department ‘T’) of the Russian Interior Ministry is trying to arrest the American-born head of Hermitage Capital, William Browder, who has conducted a successful global campaign to sanction those involved with the jailing and death of his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky.
Browder, left, a U.K. citizen, was named in an arrest warrant in absentia, Hermitage Capital said Monday.
‘Court records indicate that Lt. Colonel A.K. Gubanov of the Department “T” of the Russian Interior Ministry visited the second secretary of the British embassy in Moscow in March 2013 “searching” for Mr. Browder, who lives in London,’ Hermitage said.
The British Home Office rejected prior Russian requests for mutual legal assistance in relation to Browder, Hermitage said.
Browder is behind a global campaign to punish the Russians implicated in Magnitsky’s jailing and death.
The 39-year-old lawyer died in a Moscow prison in 2009 after uncovering a massive tax fraud. There was evidence he was tortured during his year-long detention and denied medical attention.
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Congress talks about Magnitsky’s torture and death
The United States Congress sometimes includes ‘findings’ in laws it adopts. They’re reasons behind a law — a bit of built-in legislative history.
Here are some findings from the Magnitsky Act, legislation we tabbed as the biggest anti-corruption story of 2012.
The findings reflect America’s expectations for the Russian regime, the principles those expectations are based on, and how the regime has fallen short. There’s also encouragement for ‘the people of the Russian Federation’ and beyond.
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The biggest anti-corruption story of 2012
President Obama signed into law earlier this month the Magnitsky Act. It targets travel and economic sanctions against those responsible for the jailing and death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. But the importance of the law extends far beyond that.
For decades (and with more urgency since 9/11), the United States has been looking for a legal way to punish foreign kleptocrats. The Magnitsky Act is the answer.
The immediate aim is to hold people in Russia accountable for what happened to Magnitsky. After he uncovered a $230 million tax fraud apparently orchestrated by mobsters and government officials, he was detained without trial. After a year in custody, he died in jail.
No one in Russia has been arrested or tried for his 2009 death or the crimes he discovered.
Without the Magnitsky Act, there were obstacles for the U.S. to punish Russians implicated in the case. The FCPA only reaches bribe payers and not bribe takers. A newer law, Presidential Proclamation 7750, enacted by George W. Bush in 2004, allows the State Department to deny U.S. visas to kleptocrats and their cronies — but only in secret, never naming those targeted. And the DOJ’s more recent Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative uses cumbersome asset forfeitures against crooked foreign leaders but doesn’t impose any punishment on the individuals themselves.
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U.S. Lawmakers Want Justice For Magnitsky
Last month, Rep. James McGovern, a Democrat from Massachusetts, introduced the “Justice for Sergei Magnitsky Act of 2011.” Two other Democrats and four Republican members co-sponsored the bill. It’s now pending before the House Judiciary Committee and the Committee on Financial Services.
Magnitsky was a lawyer in Moscow for William Browder’s Hermitage Capital Management, once the biggest foreign investor in Russia.
In 2005, the Russian government banned Browder from the country. Two years later, police and agents from the Ministry of the Interior raided Hermitage’s offices and those of its lawyers. They hauled away corporate documents and seals that were later used to defraud the Russian government out of a $230 million tax refund.
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