Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

Fall guy in Russian fraud uncovered by Sergei Magnitsky paid $2.1m

The Daily Telegraph

Questions have been raised about the role played by a sawmill foreman convicted of Russia’s largest tax fraud after new papers emerged purporting to show that he received payments worth $2.1m (£1.3m) following his detention for an alleged separate kidnapping.

Victor Markelov, 43, confessed in April 2009 to a vastly complex $230m theft of taxes paid to the Russian people and was jailed for five years with no fine in an apparent attempt to draw a veil over what was becoming an embarrassing episode for senior state officials implicated in the crime.

According to claims filed with the Russian prosecutor’s office, Mr Markelov may have been paid to take the fall. Two days after being arrested for the alleged kidnapping of a company director in late 2006 and attempting to extort $20m out of his boss, Mr Markelov was transferred ownership of a company with a book value of $1m.