Posts Tagged ‘US’
Russians Laundered $23.7 Million In Corrupt Cash Through NYC Real Estate, Says U.S. Attorney
American officials are seeking to seize $23.7 million in high-end Manhattan real estate they say were purchased with money from a huge fraud exposed by a lawyer who later died in prison.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara filed a civil forfeiture complaint Monday against properties held by nine offshore companies and the assets of two other companies they say laundered part of the proceeds of a huge Russian tax fraud that caused a rift in U.S.-Russian relations.
“Today’s forfeiture action is a significant step towards uncovering and unwinding a complex money laundering scheme arising from a notorious foreign fraud,” Bharara said in a statement. “A Russian criminal enterprise sought to launder some of its billions in ill-gotten rubles through the purchase of pricey Manhattan real estate. While New York is a world financial capital, it is not a safe haven for criminals seeking to hide their loot, no matter how and where their fraud took place.”
The complaint says that the real estate was purchased with money traced to a $230 million Russian tax fraud known as the “Magnitsky case” for the whistle-blowing lawyer who uncovered it. Sergei Magnitsky alleged in 2008 that corrupt officials and criminals conspired to steal subsidiaries of his client, Hermitage Capital Management, and claim a $230 million tax refund. He was jailed by the same officials he accused and died in prison a year later, aged 37. A report by Russia’s presidential human rights council in 2011 found that he had been systematically tortured, but President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly denied there was any criminality in Magnitsky’s death.
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US seeks to seize Russian criminal group’s real estate
US prosecutors are looking to seize New York property used by a Russian criminal organisation to launder funds derived from an elaborate $230m tax fraud, according to a complaint filed in a Manhattan court.
The civil action also seeks to impose money-laundering penalties on the companies set up by the organisation, whose members allegedly included corrupt Russian government officials, US Attorney Preet Bharara said.
“Today’s forfeiture action is a significant step towards uncovering and unwinding a complex money laundering scheme arising from a notorious foreign fraud,” Mr Bharara said on Tuesday in a statement.
“As alleged, a Russian criminal enterprise sought to launder some of its billions in ill-gotten roubles through the purchase of pricey Manhattan real estate. While New York is a world financial capital, it is not a safe haven for criminals seeking to hide their loot, no matter how and where their fraud took place.”
The $230m fraud was first uncovered by the late Sergei Magnitsky, a respected Russian lawyer who died in pre-trial detention in Moscow in 2009 shortly after making his whistleblowing allegations.
Prosecutors claim that members of the organisation stole the corporate identities of portfolio companies of the Hermitage Fund, a foreign investment fund operating in Russia, which were then used to make fraudulent claims for tax refunds through sham lawsuits. Officials at two Russian tax offices who were members of the organisation approved the disbursements.
Through a complex series of transfers through shell companies, $230m was laundered into numerous bank accounts in Russia and elsewhere, according to the civil complaint. A portion of the funds stolen from the Russian Treasury passed through a Cyprus-based property company Prevezon Holdings, which laundered the proceeds into Manhattan property including four luxury apartments and two high end commercial spaces, it is alleged.
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U.S. Seeks Forfeiture of Manhattan Real Estate Tied to Fraud
Federal authorities announced on Tuesday that they were seeking forfeiture of expensive Manhattan real estate tied to a fraud that they say was uncovered by a whistle-blowing Russian lawyer before he died behind bars.
A civil forfeiture complaint filed against the assets of a Cyprus-based real estate corporation and other holding companies contends that some of the proceeds from a $230 million tax fraud in Russia were laundered through the purchase of four luxury condominiums in a Wall Street doorman building, where apartments can sell for more than $3 million, and two commercial spaces in prime locations in Midtown and Chelsea.
“Today’s forfeiture action is a significant step toward uncovering and unwinding a complex money-laundering scheme arising from a notorious foreign fraud,” Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement. “While New York is a world financial capital, it is not a safe haven for criminals seeking to hide their loot, no matter how and where their fraud took place.”
The whistle-blower, Sergei Magnitsky, was a lawyer for the British investor William Browder, who was born in the United States. Mr. Magnitsky said in 2008 that organized criminals colluded with corrupt Russian Interior Ministry officials to fraudulently claim a $230 million tax rebate after illegally seizing subsidiaries of Mr. Browder’s Hermitage Capital investment company.
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Magnitsky Sanctions Listings
Magnitsky Sanctions Listings
4/12/2013
OFFICE OF FOREIGN ASSETS CONTROL
Specially Designated Nationals List Update
The Office of Foreign Assets Control has added the following names to the SDN list under the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012. The newly added SDN list tag of [MAGNIT] corresponds to this new program.
The following individuals have been added to OFAC’s SDN List:
BOGATIROV, Letscha (a.k.a. BOGATYREV, Lecha; a.k.a. BOGATYRYOV, Lecha); DOB 14 Mar 1975; POB Atschkoi, Chechen Republic, Russia (individual) [MAGNIT].
DROGANOV, Aleksey O.; DOB 11 Oct 1975; POB Lesnoi Settlement, Pushkin Area, Moscow Region, Russia (individual) [MAGNIT].
DUKUZOV, Kazbek; DOB 1974; POB Urus-Martan District, Chechen Republic, Russia (individual) [MAGNIT].
KARPOV, Pavel; DOB 27 Aug 1977; POB Moscow, Russia (individual) [MAGNIT].
KHIMINA, Yelena; DOB 11 Sep 1953; POB Moscow, Russia (individual) [MAGNIT].
KOMNOV, Dmitriy; DOB 17 May 1977; POB Kashira Region, Moscow, Russia (individual) [MAGNIT].
KRIVORUCHKO, Aleksey (a.k.a. KRIVORUCHKO, Alex; a.k.a. KRIVORUCHKO, Alexei); DOB 25 Aug 1977; POB Moscow Region, Russia (individual) [MAGNIT].
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US at OSCE statement by Ambassador Avis Bohlen
As prepared for delivery by Ambassador Avis Bohlen
OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting
Warsaw, September 26, 2012
While I hesitate to rank the session topics in any order of importance, it’s hard to overstate how critical the rule of law is to ensuring the effective implementation of other OSCE commitments and to providing redress when necessary. Indeed, how we speak about and understand the state of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the world can never be far removed from the concept and — we hope — the reality of an independent and fair judiciary interpreting and enforcing the laws of a genuinely representative legislature. Sadly, such democratic essentials are still lacking in too many of the participating States, and frequently the courts become tools of government persecution. To be sure, there have been improvements over the past year in some OSCE states, and while we also understand that no state’s judicial system is perfect, in too many cases the chasm between the commitments on paper and the reality on the ground is troubling.
Moderator, in Russia, the posthumous prosecution of Sergei Magnitsky is one of the most visible examples of what former President Dmitry Medvedev decried as “legal nihilism.” We are also concerned by the problematic trials and disproportionate sentences against the female punk group Pussy Riot and the jailing of Taisiya Osipova on questionable drug charges, as well as the legal harassment visited on many of those who have sought to express publicly their disapproval of the government, including Garry Kasparov, Alexey Navalny, and Boris Nemtsov. We reiterate our concerns regarding the second trial, verdict, and sentence of former Yukos executives Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, as well as that of Alexey Kurtsyn.
In Kazakhstan, we are concerned about the fairness of the justice system, where arrests appear to have targeted opposition activists. For example, in the case against Vladimir Kozlov, the prosecution has relied on professed “expert witnesses” who attacked Mr. Kozlov’s character, but failed to produce concrete evidentiary links between Mr. Kozlov’s support for striking oil workers and the violence that occurred in Zhanaozen last December. In the aftermath of violence in Zhanaozen, trials have has been further marred by credible allegations of torture in detention and forced confessions resulting from beatings by prison officials and threats to defendants’ families. These allegations are consistent with and reports of widespread police abuse during the crackdown following the December 16 events.
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Moscow Says U.S. Visa Deal, Magnitsky List Separate Issues
Moscow’s ratifying an agreement to ease visa regulations with the United States has nothing to do with the so-called Magnitsky list, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Friday.
Russia has constantly voiced its concerns over a U.S. bill aimed at freezing assets and barring entry to Russian officials implicated in the death of anti-corruption campaigner and whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky. Moscow also threatened with retaliatory measures in case the bill is approved.
“Russia’s possible reaction to the adoption of the Magnitsky bill must be formed in other dimensions,” Ryabkov said adding that the bilateral visa agreement was ratified on Friday by the lower house of the Russian parliament, the State Duma.
Earlier in the year, Kommersant business daily reported that the Russian parliament is delaying the process of the ratification intentionally to use the visa issue as leverage in dealing with other problems in bilateral relations.
Ryabkov said that the agreement meets Russian interests and Moscow views it “as the first step to the long-term goal, which is the transition to visa-free travel between the two countries.”
Moscow and Washington signed the agreement to ease visa requirements between the two countries in November 2011. Under the new rules, businessmen and tourists will get 3-year multi-entry visas, while government officials of both states will be able to receive one-year multi-entry visas.
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Moscow vows ‘response’ if U.S. passes bill named for whistleblower
The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee approved a bill this week that would blacklist several dozen Russian officials linked to the November 2009 death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
The Kremlin has responded vehemently to the proposed action, promising to blacklist certain U.S. officials from entering Russia.
Magnitsky was a lawyer who worked for the UK-based Hermitage Capital Management firm in Russia.
In that capacity, he accused Russian tax and police officials of embezzling $230 million and was arrested by Russian police. He was beaten to death while in police custody, triggering an uproar from Russian and international human rights groups.
The Kremlin has tried to cover up the crime and has refused to cooperate with independent investigations.
The outrage reverberated in Washington. Last year, a group of U.S. senators led by John McCain (R-AZ) introduced a bill that would blacklist Russian officials involved in the case from entering the United States. unshaven girls hairy woman https://zp-pdl.com/get-a-next-business-day-payday-loan.php https://zp-pdl.com/online-payday-loans-cash-advances.php срочный займ
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US: New Bill Sanctions Magnitsky Officials
The United States House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill on Thursday to impose sanctions on a group of Russian officials connected to the death of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian anti-graft lawyer who died in a Russian prison.
Magnitsky was arrested in November 2008 on charges of tax evasion, days after he accused Russian state tax authorities of participating in a $230 million tax refund fraud. He died a year later in a Moscow pre-trial detention center.
According to the US Committee of Foreign Affairs, the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012 will impose “sanctions [visa ban and asset freeze] on those responsible for the harassment, abuse, and death of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who was murdered during his investigation of corruption in the Russian government.”
The bill was introduced in April, by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission co-chairman Jim McGovern.
The opponents of the bill expressed fears that the new legislation would have a negative effect on the US-Russia relations, and could harm US exports to Russia. The U.S. National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) urged the Congress on Wednesday to oppose the bill.
According to the NFTC President Bill Reinsch “The Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act is seriously flawed.” He adds that “This legislation would harm U.S. relations with Russia and many other nations, and would jeopardize the significant benefits arising from Russian concessions during its WTO accession negotiations.”
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US House Committee of Foreign Affairs votes Unanimously for the Sergey Magnitsky Bill
International Criminal Law Bureau
The human rights situation in Russia has long held a position in the agenda of the international human rights community. While several inter-governmental institutions and States have denounced the stifling of free speech and freedom of assembly, the harassment of journalists, the disappearances and the torture, any effort to tackle these issues cannot be described by such institutions and league of states as anything else than a failure. Upon an exposed disappearance one can count on strong words by the EU, the US and others. One can also count on the fact that not one government official will call their counterparts in Moscow and press them to investigate and bring those responsible to justice. Russia is a country with increasing number of middle class consumers and rich in natural resources. The conventional wisdom goes that Europe and US need the trade with Russia. This wisdom also trusts that the problems with human rights never spill into the area of international business. On 16 November 2009 this was proven wrong.
Sergei Leonidovich Magnitsky died on that day in the Matrosskaya Tishina Prison in Moscow, Russia. He was a young, bright tax-lawyer, working for an internationallaw firm Firestone Duncan in Moscow. He loved his job. He loved his country. When he noticed that some corrupt officials were trying to steal $230,000,000 from their client, the Hermitage Capital Management fund, he reported this to the police. Instead of investigating this, the authorities had Sergey arrested. In prison they pressured him to sign a declaration to the effect that his report was false. He refused. On the evening of 16 November, the ambulance crew waited outside his prison door until he was dead. He had endured nearly 12 months of abuse.
The authorities thought that as with their other sanctioned acts of barbarism, the storm of criticism over this would also blow over in time. But after over two years, it remains on the global front page.
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