Posts Tagged ‘hermitage capital management’
Updated Magnitsky Act Introduced in U.S. Congress
An updated bill imposing a visa ban and asset freeze on Russian officials allegedly linked to the death in custody of Russian tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, as well as on “individuals responsible for other gross violations of human rights” in Russia has been introduced in the U.S. Congress.
Magnitsky, who worked for Hermitage Capital, a British investment fund, died in the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center in Moscow in November 2009, almost a year after being arrested on tax evasion charges. He suffered from untreated pancreatitis and gallstones. Two former prison doctors have been charged with negligence in connection with his death, but a criminal case against one of them was recently dropped.
Just days before his arrest, Magnitsky claimed to have uncovered a massive fraud in which Moscow tax and police officials had allegedly embezzled $230 million in tax rebates by taking over Hermitage subsidiaries and using them to claim tax rebates. His supporters say the legal case investigators launched against him was a means for the same security officials he had accused to muzzle him and stop his activities.
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Risks of rushing back to Russia
Oil prices are on the rise and suddenly it’s time to make sure you’re on the investment train to Russia again. And, despite a continued perception of higher risks associated with investing in the country, the early birds are already there, as a report in Monday’s FTfm explains.
While emerging market funds in general have seen big net outflows this year, according to EPFR, a global fund flow data provider, fund flows into Russia have been picking up. Russia-focused funds have gathered a total of $1.22bn in the year to date, against outflows of $2bn for China and $980m for India in the same period, EPFR data show.
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A triple test for investing in emerging markets
Emerging markets are popular these days, but how safe are these far-flung investments?
The Egyptian and Tunisian revolts prove that you can’t assess the risk of emerging markets simply by looking at economic data. Even Israel’s famed intelligence service failed to predict the recent uprisings in its own backyard, just as the CIA did not foresee the collapse of East Germany in 1989.
Or rather, one person did foresee the latter. Vernon Walters, then-U.S. ambassador to West Germany, had just returned from East Germany where he talked to people on the street, and quickly cabled James Baker, then Secretary of State, to report that the communist state would erupt. Mr. Walters was scorned, but he was right – the Berlin Wall fell in a week.
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