Posts Tagged ‘moscow’

13
December 2013

Former prosecutor feels heat over Russia involvement

New York Post

A prominent Manhattan white-collar criminal defense lawyer is the subject of a federal court grievance complaint, The Post has learned.

John Moscow, a former prosecutor now working at BakerHostetler, shouldn’t be allowed to represent several companies accused of funneling dirty Russian cash into the US to buy pricey Manhattan real estate, according to the complaint.

Moscow was hired in November 2008 by a hedge fund mogul to investigate the Russian money trail.
That conflict of interest should bar him from his current role as defense counsel to the allegedly dirty companies, William Browder, the feisty hedge fund manager who hired him, claims.

Browder says he gave Moscow confidential information that led to federal charges against Prevezon Holdings, part of the allegedly shady real estate scheme.

Moscow represents Prevezon and a slew of other defendants in a civil forfeiture case brought by US Attorney Preet Bharara.

“The same guy I was baring my soul to is now turning to the other side,” Browder told The Post.
“It’s the most shocking thing I’ve ever seen in the legal profession.”

Browder hired Moscow to help him win the freedom of his hedge fund’s lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, who was arrested in Russia.

Browder said following the money trail through subpoenas was one of the tactics Moscow had suggested to locate the persons behind the lawyer’s imprisonment.

The lawyer had been looking into an identity theft ring that hit Browder’s Hermitage hedge fund — at the time a large investor in Russia.

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30
December 2011

Moscow protest: Thousands rally against Vladimir Putin

BBC

Tens of thousands of people have rallied in central Moscow in a show of anger at alleged electoral fraud.They passed a resolution “not to give a single vote to (PM) Vladimir Putin” at next year’s presidential elections.

Protest leader Alexei Navalny told the crowd to loud applause that Russians would no longer tolerate corruption.

“I see enough people here to take the Kremlin and [Government House] right now but we are peaceful people and won’t do that just yet,” he said.

Demonstrators say parliamentary elections on 4 December, which were won by Mr Putin’s party, were rigged. The government denies the accusation.

A spokesman for Mr Putin, currently Russian prime minister, later said that “the majority of the population” supported him, describing the protesters as a minority.

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11
September 2011

David Cameron’s trip to the Kremlin must address the Sergei Magnitsky case

The Guardian

The Russian lawyer, employed by a British citizen, died in jail. The prime minister must join Washington in annnouncing a travel ban on those involved.

In diplomacy there is an unofficial statute of limitations on rows that poison state-to-state relations. November will see the fifth anniversary of the murder of Alexander Litvinenko by Russian agents in London. David Cameron will certainly raise the case when he goes to Moscow for his first trip to the Kremlin but equally certainly will have to swallow the Russian dismissal of the crime. But he will find it less easy to swerve around the case of Sergei Magnitsky, the lawyer employed by a British citizen and his London-based investment company. Magnitsky exposed the biggest tax swindle in Russian history, and was put to death by Russian officials for his pains.

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11
September 2011

‘The British government must confront Russia over human rights abuses’

The Daily Telegraph

An influential British businessmen has accused David Cameron of going soft on Russia and of naively treating the Kremlin with kid gloves out of a misplaced fear of Moscow.

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph on the eve of the Prime Minister’s historic visit to Russia tomorrow, William Browder, the founder of UK-based Hermitage Capital Management, said the British government had shied away from tackling Russia on human rights issues and claimed that the Kremlin was laughing at Mr Cameron behind his back.

“The government needs to be realistic about dealing with Russia. But it doesn’t seem to understand its major strength in dealing with Russian officials,” Mr Browder charged.

“If they think that making nice with the Russians will solve any problems, it won’t. The Russians just laugh at anyone who is approaching them from a position of weakness.”

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13
June 2011

Firestone boss runs Moscow practice from London as partner death probed

The Lawyer

The managing partner of a US law firm in Russia is being forced to run his firm from London after continuing to speak out against the authorities he believes are responsible for his former partner’s death.

The managing partner of a US law firm in Russia is being forced to run his firm from London after continuing to speak out against the authorities he believes are responsible for his former partner’s death.

Jamison Firestone is managing partner and co-founder of Moscow-based tax firm Firestone Duncan. In 2009 a partner at the firm, Sergei Magnitsky, died in custody after allegedly being refused medical treatment (TheLawyer.com, 30 November 2009).

Magnitsky had been held without trial for almost a year on charges of tax ­evasion as a consequence of an investigation into his client, investment company Hermitage Capital.

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