US Judge Makes Surprising Decision to Allow Lawyer John Moscow to Continue Representing Russian Client After Switching Sides in the Forfeiture Case from Crime Uncovered by Sergei Magnitsky

October 24, 2014

PRESS RELEASE
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US Judge Makes Surprising Decision to Allow Lawyer John Moscow to Continue Representing Russian Client After Switching Sides in the Forfeiture Case from Crime Uncovered by Sergei Magnitsky

24 October 2014 – Yesterday in the Southern District court of New York, U.S. federal judge Thomas Griesa denied Hermitage Capital’s motion to disqualify New York lawyer John Moscow, law firms Baker Hostetler and Baker Botts for conflict of interest and breaching their client’s confidences.

The New York case involves the first federal forfeiture and money laundering claim brought by the U.S. Government in relation to proceeds from the $230 million theft in Russia exposed by the murdered Hermitage’s Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and the proceeds from which have been since traced to multiple jurisdictions around the world.

The US Government has stated in its submission to the court that Hermitage is a “victim” of the $230 million fraud scheme which was perpetrated by the Russian organization involving Russian government officials at issue in the forfeiture claim.

In 2008, when Hermitage’s Russian lawyers, including Sergei Magnitsky, who had investigated and reported the $230 million fraud, came under attack from corrupt Russian police officers involved in the crime, Hermitage hired John Moscow, a former New York prosecutor responsible for investigating the Russian mafia and a partner with the U.S. firm Baker Hostetler. Moscow was brought on as an anti-money laundering expert to help identify and prosecute perpetrators of the $230 million fraud with the assistance of the US Department of Justice and to trace through US banks proceeds of the $230 million fraud, the discovery of which lead to the false arrest and death of Sergei Magnitsky.

In his work, which lasted eight months, John Moscow put together a strategy of using U.S. courts for subpoenas, federal forfeiture orders and RICO in order to go after the $230 million fraud perpetrators, and presented the results of Hermitage’s investigation to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Since then, Hermitage continued its investigation into those who benefited from Sergei Magnitsky’s killing in Russian police custody and the $230 million fraud he had uncovered in cooperation with law enforcement authorities around the world.

Last year, the U.S. Attorney’s Office filed the forfeiture claim in Southern District Court of New York in relation to the proceeds from $230 million fraud that the U.S. Government has traced to a number of multi-million dollar properties in Manhattan belonging to Prevezon, a Cyprus company owned by Russian national Denis Katsyv, a son of a former high-level Moscow regional government official.

To Hermitage’s dismay, John Moscow appeared in court to represent Prevezon in the case against the U.S. Government. He and other lawyers representing the Russian owner of Prevezon then began a campaign to discredit Hermitage as a witness for the U.S. Government.

“We feel profoundly betrayed by John Moscow and what he did and are disappointed that the court did not recognize that yesterday,” said a Hermitage Capital representative.

For further information please contact:

Hermitage Capital
Phone: +44 207 440 1777
Email: info@lawandorderinrussia.org
Website: http://lawandorderinrussia.org
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/hvIuVI
Twitter: @KatieFisher__

Российский прокурор поддержал чиновников, включенных в списки Магнитского, на слушании об экстрадиции Аблязова

October 23, 2014

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Российский прокурор поддержал чиновников, включенных в списки Магнитского, на слушании об экстрадиции Аблязова

23 октября 2014 года – Начальник отдела международного сотрудничества Генеральной прокуратуры РФ Денис Грунис, выступая на слушаниях во французском Лионе об экстрадиции Мухтара Аблязова, заявил, что санкции Запада в отношении российских чиновников по делу Магнитского не должны влиять на решения вопросов экстрадиции в Россию, которые направляют эти чиновники.

В качестве примера он привел судью Алексея Криворучко, который за два месяца до гибели Сергея Магнитского продлил срок его содержания под стражей и отказал в жалобах на жестокое обращение и отказ в медицинской помощи, а сейчас одобрил запрос о выдаче России Аблязова. Прокурор Грунис сообщил, что действия судьи Криворучко не должны смущать французские власти.

Прокурор Грунис также заявил французскому суду, что смерть Сергея Магнитского в следственном изоляторе была «скоропостижной» и что якобы уголовное преследование Сергея Магнитского после его смерти было организовано согласно обращению его матери, что в реальности противоречит многочисленным протестам и жалобам семьи прекратить посмертное преследование, организованное по приказу заместителя Генерального прокурора Виктора Гриня. Как следует из материалов слушаний, прокурор Гринь также одобрил документы в отношении преследования Мухтара Аблязова.

Судья Криворучко и прокурор Виктор Гринь входят в список из 32 россиян, подлежащих санкциям, одобренный Европейским парламентом по делу Магнитского 2 апреля 2014 года (http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/content/20140331IPR41184/html/Magnitsky-list-MEPs-call-for-EU-sanctions-against-32-Russian-officials). Судья Криворучко также включен в американский санкционный список, подготовленный в соответствии с требованиями американского закона «Сергей Магнитский. Верховенство закона и ответственность», которым введен запрет на выдачу виз и осуществление банковских услуг лицам, вовлеченным в преследование Сергея Магнитского и мошенническую схему хищения компаний фонда Hermitage и уплаченных ими 5,4 миллиардов рублей в виде налогов.

Представитель Hermitage Capital сказал:
«Принципы справедливости и соблюдения прав человека требуют, чтобы страны Европы, следуя выраженной воле Европарламента на основе заключений независимых международных организаций, отказывали в экстрадиции в Россию во всех случаях, когда запросы направляются российскими чиновниками из списка Магнитского.»

Ранее по делу Магнитского были приняты резолюции Совета Европы и Европейского парламента. В резолюции Европарламента по делу Магнитского, в частности, было подчеркнуто:

«Арест Сергея Магнитского и его гибель в заключении – это задокументированный и значительный пример неуважения к правам человека и фундаментальным свободам …, который служит напоминанием многочисленных реальных проблем с верховенством закона в России.»

За дополнительной информацией обращайтесь:
Hermitage Capital
Телефон: +44 207 440 1777 (г. Лондон)
Эл адрес: info@lawandorderinrussia.org
Вебсайт: http://lawandorderinrussia.org
Фейсбук: http://on.fb.me/hvIuVI
Твиттер: @KatieFisher__

French Prosecutor Makes Public Attempt to Whitewash Corrupt Russian Officials on the Magnitsky List in Ablyazov Extradition Case

October 23, 2014

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Distribution

French Prosecutor Makes Public Attempt to Whitewash Corrupt Russian Officials on the Magnitsky List in Ablyazov Extradition Case

23 October 2014 – French public prosecutor Christian Ponsard publicly dismissed the death of Russian anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in Russian police custody as irrelevant to cases of extradition to Russia. He suggested that there was no reason to refuse French legal assistance to Russian officials who were involved in denial of medical care and other violations of human rights in Magnitsky case.

Speaking in Lyon Court at an extradition hearing of Mukhtar Ablyazov last Friday, Prosecutor Ponsard reportedly said that the fact that this case was initiated and investigated by Russian officials sanctioned by the US and placed on the European Parliament’s list should have no bearing on the extradition of Ablyazov.

“According to people present to the hearing, the French prosecutor proposed that it was fine to extradite people into the hands of US-sanctioned and EU Parliament-designated Russian officials responsible for Sergei Magnitsky’s false arrest, torture and death,” said a Hermitage Capital representative.

The statement made by Ponsard is in direct contradiction to the European Parliament’s findings on the Magnitsky case which said in the resolution adopted on 2 April 2014:

“The arrest and subsequent death in custody of Sergei Magnitsky represent a well-documented and significant case of disrespect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in Russia, …and serve as a reminder of the many documented shortcomings in respect for the rule of law in Russia.”

The European Parliament’s resolution names 32 Russian officials and private individuals involved in the Magnitsky case (http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/content/20140331IPR41184/html/Magnitsky-list-MEPs-call-for-EU-sanctions-against-32-Russian-officials).

“It is simply impossible for France, as a member of EU, to ask for justice in Sergei Magnitsky case and then extradite somebody in the hands of exactly the same people who already bear responsibility for complete injustice against Sergei Magnitsky,” said Hermitage Capital representative.

French prosecutor Ponsard was supported in his attempt to whitewash the crimes against Magnitsky by Denis Grunis, head of Russian General Prosecutor’s international cooperation section, who participated in the same extradition hearing.

Russian Prosecutor Denis Grunis said he believed it did not matter that the person who approved a request for Mr Ablyazov’s extradition was Moscow judge Alexei Krivoruchko, the same judge who two months before Magnitsky’s death, on 14 September 2009, refused complaints from Sergei Magnitsky against cruel treatment and denial of medical care and who prolonged his detention.

Mr Krivoruchko has been placed on both US and EU Parliament-designated Magnitsky sanctions lists.

The view of the French public prosecutor is also in contradiction to the conclusions by the 47-member state Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe expressed in a report “Refusing Impunity for the Killers of Sergei Magnitsky” and adopted by overwhelming majority this January (http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-en.asp?fileid=20409&lang=en; http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-FR.asp?fileid=20409&lang=FR).

Prosecutor Ponsard also ignores an earlier resolution by the same international body which concluded that mutual legal assistance to Russia should not be provided in politically-motivated and abusive criminal cases, highlighting among such cases official attacks on Sergei Magnitsky and other Hermitage lawyers in Russia.

Russian political campaigner and world chess master, Garry Kasparov, who attended the hearing in Lyon, said on his Facebook account:

“[Prosecutor] Ponsard discounts …that seven of the Russian judges and investigators [and others] in the case are on the US sanctions list for the persecution of Sergei Magnitsky, an anti-corruption attorney who died horribly in prison… We all know there is no justice in Putin’s Russia. I was very much hoping to see better here in France.”(https://www.facebook.com/GKKasparov/posts/10152818145798307)

The court decision in this proceeding is expected on October 24, 2014, according to French press reports.

For further information please contact:

Hermitage Capital
Phone: +44 207 440 1777
Email: info@lawandorderinrussia.org
Website: http://lawandorderinrussia.org
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/hvIuVI
Twitter: @KatieFisher__

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