Posts Tagged ‘Silchenko’
Kremlin Ombudsman Urges Prosecution Over Hermitage Death
A senior Russian investigator should be prosecuted for his role in the death of Sergei Magnitsky, the Hermitage Capital Management Ltd. lawyer who died in November 2009 after almost a year in pre-trial detention, a presidential human rights ombudsman said.
The comments from Valery Borshchev, a member of the human rights council set up by President Dmitry Medvedev, came a day after the Investigative Committee said Oleg Silchenko hadn’t committed any legal violations in prosecuting Magnitsky, who was 37 when he died of heart failure. Borshchev’s committee is conducting its own probe.
Silchenko refused Magnitsky’s request for an ultra-sound scan and operation, Borshchev said today by telephone. “This refusal played a central role in Magnitsky’s death, so this is enough to bring charges against Silchenko,” he said.
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Murder case puts pressure on EU-Russia diplomacy
EU diplomacy should be guided by basic moral imperatives and open parliamentary politics, not behind-closed-doors strategising, a prominent campaigner has said.
Bill Browder, a US-born British venture capitalist who a few years ago was the biggest foreign investor on the Russian stock market, is targeting the European Parliament and national EU assemblies to make the European Council impose sanctions on Russian officials.
Browder has put together a list of 60 people in the Russian interior ministry, justice system and the secret police, the FSB, who he says tortured and murdered his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, after he exposed their multi-million-euro tax scam.
On Monday (30 May), the Russian general prosecutor in a statement said one of the top men on the list, Oleg Silchenko, committed “no violations of federal law”, in what Browder’s side called an ongoing “whitewash” that “damages the credibility” of the Russian government.
Browder, who has published hard evidence of how the Russian officials scammed the Russian taxpayer, wants the EU to impose an asset freeze and travel ban on the men and women involved.
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Police Investigator Is Cleared in Death of Russian Awaiting Trial
Russia’s Investigative Committee said Monday that prosecutors had cleared a police investigator of any wrongdoing in the case of Sergei L. Magnitsky, whose death in pre-trial detention is viewed as a test of country’s law enforcement and judicial systems.
Mr. Magnitsky, 37, who had been arrested after accusing police investigators of a huge tax fraud, died in a prison clinic after complaining for days about acute abdominal pain and untreated pancreatitis.
Central decisions about Mr. Magnitsky’s medical treatment were made by Oleg F. Silchenko, the lead investigator in the case against him, who transferred him to a prison with minimal medical facilities despite a serious diagnosis. He also authorized Mr. Magnitsky’s arrest on tax evasion charges, detained him for 11 months as a flight risk and refused repeated requests for a follow-up ultrasound that had been prescribed by a doctor.
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Magnitsky charges were fabricated, inquiry says; Justice Leaked document shows commission will blame Interior Ministry officials and FSB for lawyer’s cell death
Daily Telegraph
In a landmark investigation Into the cell death of Moscow lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, a special Kremlin commission Is likely to publicly Implicate iriGmDors of the Interior Ministry and FSB.
The metal cage used for prisoners in courtroom No 14 at the Tverskoi regional court was empty during a recent hearing, its door wide open, when the court considered the arrest of Ivan Cherkasov, a senior executive at British investment fund Hermitage Capital.
Mr Cherkasov, who lives in London, said he has no intention of returning to face charges of tax evasion he says are false. He said his arrest was an act of revenge by members of the Russian security services.
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Investigator Silchenko was absolved of all Guilt in Connection with Sergei Magnitsky’s death in detention cell
It was the Russian Investigative Committee that demanded from the Prosecutor General’s Office to run a check of Silchenko’s actions and performance in the course of the investigation that ended in the suspect’s demise. The demand for the investigation was made on May 11 within the framework of the broader investigation of the circumstances of the auditor’s death. It took the Prosecutor General’s Office just over a week to make a formal answer.
According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, a thorough investigation of Silchenko’s actions failed to uncover any violations of the federal legislation that might be qualified as encroachment on the constitutional rights of the involved persons.
Russian Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin pointed out that the demand to the Prosecutor General’s Office concerned a check of all circumstances of the investigation involving Magnitsky (including the grounds on which criminal charges had been pressed against him and whether or not all procedures had been observed properly, choice of the measure of restraint, extension of preliminary detention, and consideration of the suspects’ complaints and requests).
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Dead lawyer’s supporters fume after Silchenko is exonerated by prosecutors
Oleg Silchenko, the man who activists and western politicians accuse of bringing about Sergei Magnitsky’s death, has been cleared by the Prosecutor General’s office.
Vladimir Markin, Investigative Committee spokesman, said Lt.Col. Silchenko had not violated any federal laws in “pressing criminal charges and arresting” Magtnitsky, or in extending his custody as trial approached, RIA Novosti reported.
Magnistky died in detention awaiting trial for the same embezzlement charges he was accusing government officials of. He died aged 37 after being denied medical treatment for pancreatitis.
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Impudence and Impunity
Russia Profile.org
As Russia prepares for this year’s Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, the long-running saga of the Hermitage Capital Management will loom large in the minds of potential investors and could cast a shadow of uncertainty over Russia’s shaky investment climate. Last week, one of the individuals accused by the British hedge-fund firm of involvement in a $230 million tax scam, finally broke what looked like a sacred vow of silence.
In an interview with the Vedomosti business daily published on Friday, Vladlen Stepanov, the husband of a Russian tax official who allegedly embezzled millions through the tax rebate scam, denied any connection between his wealth and the fraud. He announced that he had filed a lawsuit to protect his honor, dignity and business reputation against the Echo of Moscow radio station, which aired the allegations, and against Jamison Firestone, a managing partner at Firestone Duncan who voiced them.
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Russia summons British hedge fund exec concerning murder of lawyer investigating corruption in Moscow
Russian Interior Ministry investigator Oleg Silchenko, who was responsible for the false arrest, torture and murder in custody of Hermitage Fund’s lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, has issued a summons to question the CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, William Browder, in Moscow.
The summons came by fax from Silchenko just two days before the date of the intended questioning. Silchenko’s notice was printed on Russian Interior Ministry letterhead and was faxed to Hermitage’s London office on 10 May, inviting William Browder to appear in Moscow two days later on May 12, at 11am at the Ministry of Interior Investigative Committee: Office 71, 10/2 B Nikitskaya, Moscow, Russian Federation.
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Swiss freeze Russian accounts over giant tax swindle
The Swiss authorities have frozen the bank accounts of Russian tax officials alleged to have pulled off Russia’s largest tax fraud, a U.S. magazine has said.
Credit Suisse accounts held by a former Moscow tax bureau head, Olga Stepanova, and her deputies were blocked at the request of Swiss prosecutors, according to an article in Barron’s Magazine.
Stepanova is alleged to have approved a $230 million tax refund in 2007 to a ring of embezzlers masquerading as representatives of subsidiaries of British investment company Hermitage Capital Management, once the leading foreign portfolio investor in Russia.
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