Posts Tagged ‘firestone’
Fire fighting
Russia is on the verge of becoming a WTO member, but practitioners with in-depth, first-hand experience of the country’s legal, political and business infrastructure believe it is rotten to the core.
It is Russian Business Week 2010 and students in a crowded lecture hall at the London School of Economics (LSE) are on the edge of their seats as Roger Munnings, chairman of Russia’s Audit Committee Institute, stands up to deliver his keynote speech.
Before he begins he asks any Russian members of the audience to raise their hands: 200 hands shoot straight up. He then asks how many people wish to return to Russia to work after completing their studies: 190 hands quickly disappear.
Munnings carries on with his speech regardless, but when it finally comes to a close, one member of the audience cannot resist standing up and passing comment.
Maybe you weren’t paying attention when you asked for a show of hands,” he says, “but only 10 of 200 Russian LSE students want to return to Russia. These are the best and brightest students that Russia has to offer and they don’t want to go back home. Just what good news and a true picture of Russia are they supposed to be spreading?”
The audience member was none other than Jamison Firestone, managing partner of both Moscow law firm Firestone Duncan and London-based FD Advisory. His probing comment earned him an overwhelming ovation from the student body.
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US Congress postpones signing Magnitsky Act
The US Congress has postponed its final vote on the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012.
The law, which has already overcome several major hurdles in the US Congress, was scheduled to go to the floor vote on 3 August before Congress broke for summer recess. However, the house announced at the end of last week that it would delay both voting on the law and on passing the bill to grant Russia Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) until Congress resumes in September.
The Act is part of a bill to repeal the Jackson-Vanik amendment to the Trade Act of 1974, which the US introduced to prevent the former Soviet Union, and other countries that restricted the emigration of their citizens, from enjoying PNTR with the US. The PNTR bill was approved by the House Ways and Means Committee two weeks ago.
WTO rules stipulate that member states must grant each other unconditional trading rights. As a result, this repeal is highly desired by US companies, which, after 22 August, when Russia finally joins the World Trade Organisation, will trade with Russia at a disadvantage to other WTO members until PNTR is granted.
In spite of the delays, the upcoming votes mark a key turning point as the US government finally bows to pressure by campaigners to name and shame those involved in the Magnitsky ordeal and similar human rights violations in Russia. Magnitsky, a partner at Moscow-based law firm Firestone Duncan, died in a Moscow prison on 16 November after being held without trial for almost a year on charges of tax evasion.
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Two tax officials accused of embezzlement by Magnitsky out of Russia – FSB report in court
Two former tax service officials whom Sergei Magnitsky, a Hermitage Capital lawyer, suspected shortly before dying at a Moscow prison of embezzling about 5.4 billion rubles from the budget, have left Russia.
This information became known at a Tuesday session of the Basmanny District Court hearing an appeal by Magnitsky’s colleague, Jamison Firestone, against investigators’ inaction.
Firestone, in particular, complained that law enforcement bodies failed to detain tax service officials Olga Tsaryova and Yelena Anisimova to probe their possible involvement in the embezzlement scheme.
A report presented at the court by the Federal Security Service (FSB) says that Tsaryova and Anisimova had left Russian territory, and therefore an investigator could not present them with summons to take part in a pretrial investigation.
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Tax Officials Accused by Magnitsky of Stealing $186M Flee Country
Two tax officials accused by former Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky of stealing 5.4 billion rubles ($186 million) in a corruption scheme cannot be questioned in the case because they left the country in May, a newly released Federal Security Service report said.
The FSB report was presented at a hearing in a lawsuit filed by Magnitsky colleague Jamison Firestone against investigators for failing to open probes against government officials accused by Magnitsky of stealing public funds, Interfax reported Tuesday.
The two tax officials mentioned in the FSB report, Olga Tsaryova and Yelena Anisimova, were accused by Magnitsky of stealing $186 million in a tax refund scheme, Firestone’s lawyer Alexander Antipov said at the hearing Tuesday.
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Magnitsky’s colleague writes open letter to presidential candidates
Jamison Firestone, a colleague of late Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky who died at a Moscow jail, has called on the Russian presidential candidates to take charge of the Magnitsky inquest.
Today Sergei Magnitsky’s colleague has sent an open letter to all the Russian presidential candidates, urging them to put an end to the mocking of Sergei Magnitsky’s relatives by Russian law enforcement agencies, the company said in a statement obtained by Interfax on Thursday.
Despite the unprecedented public outrage both in and outside Russia, law enforcement agencies have not advanced in their investigation of these crimes, having blamed only ordinary doctors, or petty criminals and drug addicts, or Magnitsky himself, according to the letter sent to Vladimir Putin, Mikhail Prokhorov, Sergei Mironov, Gennady Zyuganov and Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
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Sergei Magnitsky Death Highlights Russia Impunity
After speaking out against corruption, the young lawyer was left to die in jail. Two years on, says Jamison Firestone, no one has been brought to justice
In 2008 a young Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, working for Russia’s largest foreign investor, Hermitage Fund, began investigating links between senior Russian officials and organised crime figures.
As Magnitsky dug deeper, he found instance after instance of fraudulent tax refunds, totalling about half a billion dollars. He filed a series of complaints and repeatedly gave testimony against the officials and criminals involved.
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Russian prosecutor’s libel claim against dead lawyer’s colleague rejected
Interfax
The Meshchanskiy district court of Moscow has turned down the claim by an employee of the Prosecutor’s Office, Andrey Pechegin. He asked for a decision to order Jamison Firestone – a colleague of a lawyer of Hermitage Capital investment fund, Sergey Magnitskiy, who died in remand prison – to retract assertions, according to which the claimant with his actions paralysed the investigation of the case of the theft of R5.4bn from the budget of the Russian Federation.
According to an Interfax correspondent, the court read out only the declarative part of the ruling and therefore the reasons it was guided by will become known later.
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Europe court: Russia violated rights of Yukos
Russia violated the rights of the now-defunct oil behemoth Yukos, the European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday. But the court rejected a contention that the prosecution of Yukos was politically motivated and deferred any ruling on nearly $100 billion in damages.
Russian authorities were unfair in meting out punishment to the company over tax violations and didn’t give Yukos enough time to prepare its defense, according to the ruling from the court in Strasbourg, France.
The ruling is open for a months-long appeal process available to both sides.
Yukos sought $98 billion in damages, the largest claim in the court’s 50-year history and one of Russia’s biggest legal challenges to date.
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Jamison Firestone, “We reject the option, where we do not demand that the people who killed Magnitsky go to prison”
(Translated from Original Russian)
Hermitage Capital’s lawyers demand a criminal case against the former head of the Moscow Tax Inspectorate № 28 of Olga Stepanova. Jamison Firestone (Firestone Dunken), colleague Magnitsky, answered questions from RFI.
RFI: Jamison, good morning. Attorneys «Hermitage Capital» call to investigate a new crime of tax official’s Olga Stepanova. Sergei Magnitsky has helped uncover a crime, was arrested and died. Are not you afraid that history may repeat itself?
Jamison Firestone: Of course, we’re afraid of this. But there is a problem: there is a group of people who systematically stole huge amounts of money – nearly $ 400 million – from the budget, and to hide it, they killed a man. And we just categorically reject the option where we do not require that the people who killed Sergei go to prison. So, of course, it is frightening work; But on the other hand, people killed a man, a man whom Russia should recognize as a hero, and these people should be held responsible for his murder. And in order for them to answer for this, we continue to work.
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