Posts Tagged ‘switzerland’
Shadow of Magnitsky case reaches Switzerland
The case of Sergei Magnitsky, the anti-corruption lawyer who died a lonely and agonising death in a Moscow prison cell, has become an international cause celebre. Campaigners for justice have followed part of the money trail to Switzerland.
While working for an American law firm in Moscow in 2007, Magnitsky uncovered the largest tax refund fraud in Russian history, involving the theft of companies belonging to his client Bill Browder, formerly one of the most successful foreign investors in Russia through his firm Hermitage Capital Management.
For his efforts the 37-year-old lawyer was falsely arrested and held in pre-trial detention for 11 months, where he suffered torture and medical neglect resulting in his death in November 2009.
This version of events, accepted by the United States, the European Parliament, Amnesty International and the Russian opposition movement, is still disputed by the Russian authorities, who are pressing ahead with a posthumous prosecution of Magnitsky. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for January 28.
Earlier this month, the Swiss Federal Prosecutor’s Office announced it was freezing additional accounts in connection with its money laundering investigation into “persons unknown” in the Magnitsky case. This is the first public move since prosecutors blocked related accounts in March 2011.
The office declined to give details of the investigation other than to say that it was “continually turning up new findings that require additional examination”. The Russian government has not commented officially on the Swiss prosecutors’ move.
Read More →
Facebook
Twitter
Google Buzz
LinkedIn
del.icio.us
Google Bookmarks
Yahoo! Buzz
Tumblr
StumbleUpon
FriendFeed
NewsVine
Digg
A Russian Lawyer’s Death Triggers a Global Money Hunt
In 2009, a lawyer named Sergei Magnitsky died in a Moscow jail after uncovering the biggest known tax fraud in Russian history—a theft of $230 million from the national treasury. The case has touched off a diplomatic row, with the U.S. imposing sanctions on Russian officials accused of having a role in Magnitsky’s death and Moscow retaliating on Dec. 28 by barring Americans from adopting Russian orphans.
Now about that $230 million. Russian authorities said it couldn’t be found because essential records were destroyed in a truck crash. A sawmill worker and a convicted burglar pleaded guilty to masterminding the heist, which involved filing bogus tax-refund claims. Both got five-year sentences.
Magnitsky’s associates, though, keep looking for the cash. An investigation spearheaded by his former client, Hermitage Capital Management, a London-based investment fund, has traced $134 million through bank accounts and shell companies in at least 17 countries. Banking records obtained by Hermitage and reviewed by Bloomberg Businessweek show that millions wound up in offshore accounts and real estate owned by Russian officials, their relatives, and the former owner of a Russian bank. Authorities in four of these countries confirm that they have opened money-laundering investigations.
In the Magnitsky case, Hermitage accuses government officials of stealing from taxpayers, and the Kremlin has made no apparent effort to recover the money. “That’s the most awful thing—it is our money,” says Roman Anin, a reporter at the Moscow newspaper Novaya Gazeta who has worked with Hermitage on its investigation. Russia’s Interior Ministry did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
Swiss prosecutors freeze local bank accounts in quest for Magnitsky funds
Swiss federal prosecutors have imposed freezes against local bank accounts in the amount of millions of francs as part of an investigation into the money laundering case connected with Hermitage Capital fund lawyer Sergei Magnitsky’s death, Swiss media outlets reported Wednesday.
Prior to his death in a Moscow pre-trial detention center, the Hermitage Capital lawyer claimed that Russian tax officials had stolen $230 million from the company and laundered the funds through Switzerland. Russia has refuted the accusations on numerous occasions.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
Hermitage Capital calls for Russian inquiry into $330m ‘tax frauds’ uncoverred by Sergei Magnitsky
Lawyers for the London-based hedge fund Hermitage Capital Management have applied to the Russian authorities for an inquiry to be opened into the alleged involvement of a senior state official in suspected tax frauds worth more than $330m (£204m).
The alleged frauds were uncovered in 2008 by Sergei Magnitsky, Hermitage’s investigative lawyer whose death in custody while awaiting trial on allegedly trumped-up charges has become a national scandal.
Mr Magnitsky’s colleagues have unearthed new evidence that they claim shows the same two tax officials, Olga Stepanova and Elena Khimina green-lighted the rebates for both alleged frauds. Ms Stepanova has since been promoted to a senior post in the Russian defence ministry.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
No matter how much damaging information civic activists or foreign investors have dug out, the fight against corruption will still depend entirely on the country leadership’s political will
WPS: What the Papers Say
On Monday May 16th, 2011, the lawyers of Hermitage Capital Investment Fund Managing Director William Browder attended the IAM Investigation Committee. According to Investigation Committee official representative Irina Dudukina, they were acquainted with the order on the prolongation of the investigation of the criminal case against their client. There is little doubt that all of this is a direct response to the actions of Hermitage Capital. As is known, some time ago Fund lawyers filed an appeal to the Prosecutor’s Office of Switzerland and thus began a criminal investigation of money laundering by Russian officials and members of their families. Representatives of the Fund argue that part of the funds stolen from the Russian budget have been placed on the accounts in Swiss banks. Earlier Fund lawyer Sergey Magnitsky, who was accused of tax evasion and died in prison in 2009, insisted on the investigation of that crime.
If William Browder, who now lives abroad, was interrogated by an investigator, probably he would have been behind the bars already, like it was with Magnitsky, and it cannot be excluded that he we would end up like his colleague.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
President Dmitry Medvedev Craves a New Economic Order Both at Home and Abroad
While an international legal forum is hardly the perfect setting for delving deep into the intricacies of economic governance, in Russia’s highly convoluted regulatory environment the exception is quite often the rule. As in many international discussion forums hosted by Russia lately, economic issues loom large at the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum that kicked off on Friday. “We now need to start discussing new advanced standards in banking, finances and accounting, and common corporate governance standards,” Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev told participants in a keynote address on Friday.
The three-day legal forum, organized to discuss the role of law in the innovative and safe development of global peace, was attended by nearly 500 legal experts and politicians that included Thorbjorn Jagland, the secretary general of the Council of Europe, Cecilia Malstrom, EU Home Affairs commissioner and Hans van Loon, secretary general of the Hague Conference on Private International Law. Akira Kawamura, the president of the International Bar Association and former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder also attended the forum, which was organized at the behest of the Russian president.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
Russian corruption scandal: A trail leads to Switzerland
Schweizer Fernsehen
A story like a thriller: A Russia lawyer, Sergei magnitsky, uncovers a huge tax fraud and accused Russian police officers and judges of being involved. Instead of investigating his claims, the police officers take him to prison, where he is being treated inhumanely and dies. A portion of the stolen money was laundered though banks accounts of Credit Suisse.
займы на карту займ онлайн на карту без отказа zp-pdl.com https://zp-pdl.com микрозайм онлайн
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
Russians accused of Swiss money laundering
Russian tax officials are being investigated for alleged money laundering in Switzerland, the federal prosecutor’s office has confirmed.
The Swiss money laundering reporting office received a complaint from legal representatives of an investment fund run by Hermitage Capital Management, a company based in Guernsey that specializes in Russian markets.
The company’s head, Bill Browder, who works out of London, said Switzerland has frozen the accounts of the husband of one of the Russian tax officials suspected of financial fraud.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
Stolen Russian tax money is in EU banks, US sleuth says
People responsible for the death of Russian lawyer Sergey Magnitsky have salted away stolen money in EU bank accounts, Magnitsky’s former employer has claimed.
Bill Browder, the US-born head of the UK investment firm, Hermitage Capital Management, and five of his staff have spent the past year hunting down the assets of Russian officials exposed in a €175 million tax fraud by Magnitsky shortly before he was jailed and murdered in his cell.
Browder scored a victory last week when Swiss authorities froze a number of accounts in the Credit Suisse bank following evidence brought to light by Hermiatge and broadcast on YouTube.
Read More →
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Google Buzz
- LinkedIn
- del.icio.us
- Google Bookmarks
- Yahoo! Buzz
- Tumblr
- StumbleUpon
- FriendFeed
- NewsVine
- Digg
