US Government Sanctions Russian Officials Who Posthumously Accused Sergei Magnitsky in the US$230 Million Fraud He Had Uncovered

February 2, 2016

US Government Sanctions Russian Officials Who Posthumously Accused Sergei Magnitsky in the US$230 Million Fraud He Had Uncovered

 

 

2 February 2016 – The United States government has announced visa bans and asset freezes on several Russian officials involved in the posthumous accusation of Sergei Magnitsky in the US$230 Million fraud that he had in fact uncovered.

 

“This is an important development in the continued fight for justice in the Sergei Magnitsky case. In spite of international condemnation, Russian authorities continue to falsely accuse Sergei Magnitsky in the $230 million theft from the Russian government that he uncovered and exposed. These sanctions show that it is not acceptable for the people involved in the crime to hide behind a man they killed,” said Bill Browder, leader of the Magnitsky Justice campaign.

 

The new Magnitsky-related sanctions list announced by the US Treasury includes four Russian Interior Ministry officials involved in posthumous proceedings against Sergei Magnitsky:

 

1) Alexei Anichin, most senior Russian official on the list, was (until June 2011) Deputy Interior Minister and Head of the Investigative Committee of the Interior Ministry of Russia, which organized the arrest and detention of Sergei Magnitsky, and pressured him to withdraw testimony implicating Russian Interior Ministry officials in the US$230 million fraud, with Alexei Anichin personally signing a decree in those proceedings in July 2008. After Sergei Magnitsky died, the Anichin-led Investigative Committee advanced false accusations against Sergei Magnitsky posthumously.

 

2) Pavel Lapshov, Colonel of the Russian Interior Ministry, served (until October 2012) as Head of the Organized Crime and Corruption Directorate of the Interior Ministry’s Investigative Committee. He appeared at a press conference in December 2011 to advance false posthumous accusations against Magnitsky and exonerate complicit officials (http://www.novayagazeta.ru/news/52474.html).

 

3) Boris Kibis, investigator of the Russian Interior Ministry, who during 2011-2012 was in charge of the posthumous proceeding opened against Sergei Magnitsky after his death. Kibis also issued multiple summonses to Sergei Magnitsky’s mother and tried to remove her lawyer who challenged the posthumous proceedings.

 

4) Oleg Urzhumtsev, is a close associate of the criminal organization exposed by Sergei Magnitsky. He was an investigator from the Russian Interior Ministry put in charge of investigating the criminal conspiracy. In that role he exonerated its key members, and posthumously accused Sergei Magnitsky of the $230 million fraud that Magnitsky had uncovered. While in charge of “investigating” the Magnitsky-uncovered criminal conspiracy, investigator Oleg Urzhumtsev traveled with Andrei Pavlov and Yulia Mayorova, the two key persons whose role in the criminal conspiracy he was supposed to investigate, to Ukraine and back to Russia during 8-10 July 2008 http://russian-untouchables.com/rus/docs/F13.pdf. He then questioned them in the two following months, on 21 August and 21 September 2008, about the circumstances of the criminal conspiracy and found on wrongdoing in their actions. The connection of Oleg Urzhumtsev to Andrei Pavlov, a close associate of the leader of the criminal conspiracy, Dmitry Klyuev, who himself had been previously sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act, goes back as far back as 2005 based on the joint travel pattern http://russian-untouchables.com/rus/docs/F14.pdf.

 

“The Magnitsky Act was intended to be an open-ended process, and we are regularly reviewing the situation to see whether there are additional designations possible,” said the US State Department official.

 

Explaining the new Magnitsky-related designation, the US State Department official said:

 

“Aleksey Anichin was the former head of the Russian interior ministry’s investigative department. He was – he had authorized the criminal case under which Sergei Magnitsky was originally arrested. Pavel Lapshov was the head of the interior ministry’s investigative department of organized criminal activity. He was – his investigative unit concluded that Magnitsky himself was responsible for the conspiracy which Magnitsky uncovered. Two of the others – that is, Urzhumtsev and Kibis – were involved in the posthumous prosecution of Magnitsky.”

 

The new Magnitsky-related designation officially published on 1 February 2016, contains five individuals, bringing the total number of persons sanctioned since the enactment of the “Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act,” to 39.

 

For more information, please contact:

 

Justice for Sergei Magnitsky Campaign

+44 207 440 1777

e-mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org

www.lawandorderinrussia.org

Twitter: @KatieFisher__

www.facebook.com/russianuntouchables

billbrowder.com

 

List of New Magnitsky-related Designations:

https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/OFAC-Enforcement/Pages/20160201.aspx

Annual Report on the Implementation of the Sergei MagnitskyRule of Law Accountability Act:

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2016/02/251969.htm?goMobile=0

Briefing by Senior State Department Official ViaTeleconference, February 1, 2016:

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2016/02/251989.htm

 

 

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