Posts Tagged ‘stepanov’
US starts a new ‘cold war’ over Magnitsky affair: Furious Russia vows to list Americans blocked from entering country, after US votes to name and shame corrupt officials
The Independent. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs described ‘biased approach’ as ‘nothing but a vindictive desire to counter Russia in world affairs’
SHAUN WALKER, JEROME TAYLOR MOSCOW FRIDAY 07 DECEMBER 2012
One of Russia’s top foreign policy officials responded furiously and promised that Russia would indeed answer with its own list of Americans to be banned from entry to Russia.
“The reciprocal list will be fairly significant, if we name those behind Guantanamo, Abu-Ghraib, and the CIA secret jails, Mikhail Margelov, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Russia’s Federation Council.
“The list will include those who have violated human rights [in the Middle East], and that would be according to global opinion, and not just the opinion of this Mr Browder, who some experts feel is simply using the Magnitsky List as a diversion.”
However, according to a poll by the Levada Centre, an independent Russian polling agency, 39 percent of Russians who had heard about the Magnitsky Act approved of it, rising to 45% among Muscovites.
Yesterday the US Senate voted to name and shame Russian officials involved in corruption and to forbid them from travelling to America or investing there.
The overwhelming vote in favour of the new law prompted a furious response from Moscow – as well as demands from two former British Foreign Secretaries, Sir Malcolm Rifkind and David Miliband, for a similar ban to be introduced by the UK.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs hit back, describing the “biased approach” as “nothing but a vindictive desire to counter Russia in world affairs”.
The Ministry published a series of furious remarks on its official Twitter feed: “It is perplexing and preposterous to hear human rights complaints from the US, where torture and kidnapping are legal in the 21st century. Apparently, Washington has forgotten what year this is and still thinks the Cold War is going on.
“The US decision to impose visa and financial sanctions on certain Russian citizens is like something out of the theatre of the absurd. Obviously, US passage of the ‘Magnitsky Law’ will adversely affect the prospects of bilateral cooperation.”
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Magnitsky Case: ‘Supergrass’ Drops Dead
A Russian businessman who was helping Swiss authorities investigate a multimillion-pound money laundering scheme in Russia has been found dead outside his Surrey home.
The Swiss prosecutor’s office confirmed 44-year-old Alexander Perepilichnyy had been assisting authorities with their inquiries.
Hermitage Capital was once one of the largest foreign investors in Russia but fell victim to apparent conspiracy by Russian interior ministry officials and tax officers to defraud the Russian tax system.
Corporate seals were taken from Hermitage Capital following a police raid and used apply for a series of tax rebates. The rebates were signed off by courts and tax offices and the money was transferred into a bank which was liquidated shortly afterwards.
The Independent newspaper reported that Mr Perepilichnyy was a key witness against the Klyuev Group, a network of Russian officials and criminals implicated in a series of tax frauds and the death in custody of Sergei Magnitsky, a Moscow lawyer hired by Hermitage.
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British aristocrat linked to Sergei Magnitsky case
A British aristocrat has been linked to the suspected laundering of the fraudulent gains of Russian criminals involved in the death of anti-corruption campaigner, Sergei Magnitsky.
Andrew Moray Stuart, heir to the Viscountcy of Stuart of Findhorn, has been named alongside other Britons in a legal complaint filed with the City of London police and the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).
Lawyers for Hermitage Capital Management, the UK hedge fund whose Moscow lawyer – Mr Magnitsky – uncovered the alleged $230m (£140m) fraud, have called for a formal investigation by the economic crimes department into alleged money laundering.
Mr Stuart, who lives in Mauritius and Dubai but is named as a director of more than 500 UK companies, is alleged to have transferred about $1.4m through a British Virgin Islands’ shell operation on behalf of Vladlen Stepanov, the husband of a senior tax official at the centre of the alleged fraud.
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Must Read: The Novaya Newspaper On VAT Theft At Tax Office #28
You will probably remember from the case of Magnitsky, the thieves in Taxation Inspection #28 (including my favourite Vladlen-I-Am-Bitter- Stepanov) who, under the cover of the Investigation Committee, Ministry of Interior and Federal Security Service, pulled from the budget 5.4 bln roubles on the pretence of profit tax refund.
Those who deal with taxation know quite well that stealing money via “abusive tax schemes” is done by means of fake VAT recovery; theft of profit tax rebate is rather uncommon.
Honest businessmen fail to recompense it for years, most often they secure judgement only through court rule.
But certain personalities get the VAT recovered lightening-fast.
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Alexei Navalny vs. Vladlen Stepanov
Anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny has lost a defamation lawsuit filed by Vladlen Stepanov, whom Navalny had implicated in the death of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. This is very good news — not that Navalny lost, of course, but that the lawsuit publicized some very important information. But let’s first look at what we knew before the lawsuit.
We knew that there was a greenmailer, Hermitage Capital founder William Browder, who had a falling out with the Russian authorities. We know that in June 2007 Interior Ministry officer Artyom Kuznetsov entered Browder’s offices and seized documents and stamps of three of his “shell” firms — Hermitage Capital subsidiaries Makhaon, Parfenion and Riland.
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Navalny Fined Over Magnitsky Allegations
Anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny was convicted on Monday of slander in a lawsuit filed against him by a businessman linked to the death of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
Moscow’s Lyublinsky District Court ordered Navalny to pay a fine of 100,000 rubles ($3,200) and disavow several statements claiming that Vladlen Stepanov was a beneficiary of fraudulent tax returns that Magnitsky was trying to expose, Navalny wrote on his Twitter.
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Jail Officials Targeted Over Magnitsky
Investigators said Monday that a criminal case has been opened into two prison officials in connection with the death of Hermitage lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and that they face possible charges of negligence.
Larisa Litvinova, former medical official at Moscow’s Butyrskaya pretrial prison, faces up to three years in prison if charged and convicted of unintentional manslaughter by breach of professional duty, the Investigative Committee said.
Her former superior, Dmitry Kratov, may be jailed for five years if charged with negligence that resulted in death, committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said, Interfax reported.
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After Swiss Freeze Millions, Stepanov Swings Back
An abbreviated version of this story ran in May 28 edition of Barron’s Magazine.
Swiss prosecutors have frozen Eur. 8 million in Credit Suisse bank accounts of Vladlen Stepanov, a subject of our story about a $230 million tax scam in Russia that victimized the hedge fund firm Hermitage Capital and led to the death in police custody of Hermitage’s whistle blowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky (“Crime and Punishment in Putin’s Russia,” April 16).
Stepanov isn’t taking the Swiss action lying down. Last week he placed a self-justifying advertisement in a Russian newspaper, and this week he appeared for a video-taped interview at the Russian financial daily Vedomosti. In both forums, Stepanov denies that the Swiss bank money, and other riches detailed in our article, were illicitly obtained or derived from the hundreds of millions in dubious Russian tax refunds doled out by Olga Stepanova, a former tax official from whom Stepanov says he’s been divorced since 1992.
The evidence of corruption amongst police and other officials involved in the Magnitsky case has created enough of a stink that President Dmitry Medvedev called a press conference last week to discuss an independent inquiry into the scandal.
“I do not want to be a wood chip,” is the headline of Stepanov’s May 17th ad in the RBK Daily newspaper – an allusion to a Russian proverb suggesting that he sees himself as an innocent victim who’s been ground up in the chainsawing of a forest. He dismisses as “recreational arithmetic,” the estimates of his wealth presented in “horror videos” about the Magnitsky case produced by Hermitage Capital’s founder William F. Browder (see www.russian-untouchables.com).
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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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