Posts Tagged ‘Hermitage’
Our Answer to Magnitsky
“Our answer to Chamberlain.”
This Soviet slogan originated in the late 1920s as a government protest against British Foreign Minister Austen Chamberlain, who was outspoken in his criticism of the Soviet policy toward China. But instead of addressing the arguments raised by Chamberlain, the Kremlin responded with the only weapon they had: a massive propaganda campaign that included military threats aimed at Britain. The expression later took on the broader meaning of basically “Go fly a kite!” when the Kremlin had nothing else to say in response to criticism from the West.
“Our answer to Chamberlain” is the best way to describe the bill introduced by the Foreign Ministry and United Russia (and supported by the other three parties in the State Duma) that would blacklist foreign bureaucrats and public officials who have allegedly violated the rights of Russian citizens located abroad. Foreigners who end up on the list would be barred from entering Russia and prevented from conducting business deals, and whatever assets they hold in Russian banks would be frozen.
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The Top 10 Reasons You Should Support S. 1039
Khodorkovsky & Lebedev Communications Center
When people think of President Barack Obama’s “reset” policy with Russia, the first things that come to mind are the deferral of the missile defense shield in Eastern Europe, a new nuclear arms reductions treaty, or maybe even the friendly hamburger summit with his contemporary President Dmitry Medvedev.
While there are no shortage of arguments disputing the advantages and failures of the reset strategy, when it comes to human rights, the most impactful policy proposal comes not from the White House or State Department, bur rather an item of legislation conceived last year by Senator Benjamin Cardin (D-Md). The draft law aims to become a model for the way governments can emphasize values and combat human rights abuses through the creation of specific disincentives targeted at those responsible. How does it work? Instead of punishing citizens who also suffer under these officials, the law would focus on visa restrictions of certain officials, and halt their use of Western financial institutions to launder ill-gotten funds.
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Reset Regret: Moral Leadership Needed to Fix U.S.–Russian Relations
The discussion about democracy, human rights, and the rule of law has careened through at least three phases in U.S. relations with Russia, each one resulting in sometimes jarring shifts in Washington’s approach to Moscow.
In order to reaffirm America’s interests, when dealing with Russia, the U.S. should concentrate on the values of freedom and justice. The Administration needs to stop its policy of “pleasing Moscow” and instead add pressure on Russia to start a “reset” of its own policies that currently disregard human rights, democracy, and good governance. The U.S. should deny visas to corrupt Russian businessmen, examine their banking practices and acquisitions, and target Russian police and prosecutors who fabricate evidence, and judges who rubber stamp convictions, which is what the bipartisan S. 1039 “Justice for Sergey Magnitsky” bill aims to do.
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Russia Eases on William Browder
Any regular reader of this blog is no stranger to William Browder’s roller-coaster history as a foreign investor in Russia, a one-time success story turned ultimate victim, including the horrific death in prison of his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky following torture by denial of medical services.
While still no one has ever been held accountable for the death of Magnitsky, and instead of investigations into the matter the prosecutors seem much more interested in producing cases and investigations against the victims, today Kommersant is reporting some small developments that may indicate a softening stance towards Browder.
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Browder to fight on despite moves to wind down his case
Bill Browder, the head of the Hermitage Capital, is to carry on fighting for justice in the Sergei Magnitsky case even as a criminal case against his UK-based hedge fund seems to be winding down.
Kommersant yesterday reported that documents relating to Browder’s criminal case for alleged tax evasion were sent to the head police department of Moscow’s central administrative district and Browder was removed from the international wanted list.
These changes are believed to be linked with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s order to look into the case against Magnitsky, Hermitage Capital’s lawyer who had died in pre-trial detention over a year ago. Magnitsky was held on remand in 2008 on tax evasion charges after attempting to defend Hermitage, once Russia’s top foreign investor, against the same charges.
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Russia may close case against Hermitage Capital CEO
A criminal case against the head of the British hedge fund Hermitage Capital, William Browder, accused of tax evasion, may soon be closed, the Russian Kommersant business daily said on Monday.
Kommersant said that the documents on Browder’s case were sent to the head police department of Moscow’s central administrative district and Browder was removed from the international wanted list.
These changes are believed to be linked with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s order to look into the case against Sergei Magnitsky, Hermitage Capital’s lawyer who had died nine months after being placed in pre-trial detention in 2008.
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Hermitage Moves Criminal Complaint Forward
Lawyers acting on behalf of Hermitage Capital filed a new criminal complaint today with the Russian State Investigative Committee demanding the prosecution of officials from Moscow Tax Offices 25 and 28, who had perpetrated the theft of US$107 million through a fraudulent tax refund scheme in 2006.
The complaint implicates Olga Stepanova, head of Moscow Tax Office 28, and Elena Khimina, head of Moscow Tax Office 25. They are the same two officials who a year later approved an identical US$230 million fraudulent tax refund. After Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky exposed the schemes, he was arrested, tortured, and killed in Russian police custody.
A Hermitage Capital spokesman said, “This US$107 fraudulent tax refund case has direct relevance to the case that led the arrest, torture and death in custody of Sergei Magnitsky. If the Russian government is in any way serious about investigating the death of Sergei Magnitsky, or indeed about fighting corruption and instituting the rule of law, they must investigate this crime.”
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Russian Lawyer Who Died in Jail Uncovered $107M Tax Rebate Fraud, Hedge Fund Alleges
As an investigation apparently has stalled concerning what some claim to have been Russian government wrongdoing in a massive tax rebate fraud case related to the death of a jailed Russian lawyer, a Russia-focused hedge fund for which Sergei Magnitsky did legal work is seeking a new criminal investigation.
Hermitage Capital filed a complaint on Friday with Russia’s State Investigative Committee, contending that a similar $107 million tax rebate fraud, also uncovered by attorney Magnitsky before his death in 2009 at age 37, occurred in 2006, reports Barron’s.
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New Complaint Alleges Theft of $107 Million in Russia
Hermitage Capital filed a new criminal complaint, alleging Moscow tax officials helped steal $107 million through an earlier fraudulent tax-refund scheme in 2006.
Bill Browder, founder of the Russia-focused hedge fund Hermitage Capital, continues to seek justice from a seemingly corrupt system. “We hope to thoroughly embarrass the Russian government into action,” said Browder in a phone interview this morning.
On Friday, Hermitage Capital filed its latest criminal complaint with Russia’s State Investigative Committee, demanding that prosecutors investigate the second massive tax rebate fraud exposed by the late Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer working for Hermitage before his death in the custody of Russian cops he’d accused of corruption. Before his arrest, Magnitsky had helped Hermitage file a detailed criminal complaint in July of 2008 that provided evidence of a $230 million tax-refund scheme in 2007 (later described by Barron’s in “Crime and Punishment in Putin’s Russia,” April 16).
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