Russian Official Offers to Become FBI Informant to Assist Son Allegedly Involved in Money Laundering Scandal in Magnitsky Case

December 10, 2015

Russ­ian Offi­cial Offers to Become FBI Infor­mant to Assist Son Alleged­ly Involved in Mon­ey Laun­der­ing Scan­dal in Mag­nit­sky Case

Pyotr Kat­syv, for­mer Min­is­ter of Trans­port for Moscow Region, Vice Pres­i­dent of Russ­ian Railways

10 Decem­ber 2015 – Doc­u­ments filed in the US court in the first US civ­il mon­ey laun­der­ing case involv­ing the $230 mil­lion crime that Sergei Mag­nit­sky had uncov­ered, show that Pyotr (also spelled Petr) Kat­syv, a senior Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cial, offered to become an FBI infor­mant to help set­tle the mon­ey laun­der­ing action brought against his son’s com­pa­ny in the Mag­nit­sky case.

Accord­ing to court doc­u­ments, Pyotr Kat­syv, cur­rent­ly Vice Pres­i­dent of Russ­ian Rail­ways, and for­mer Vice Pre­mier of the Moscow Region­al Gov­ern­ment, offered the US Gov­ern­ment to meet to pro­vide infor­ma­tion on “crim­i­nal activ­i­ty in Rus­sia.” This offer was pre­ced­ed by a meet­ing between his son, Denis Kat­syv, and FBI Spe­cial Agent in Rome, Italy.

Fol­low­ing the offer from Pyotr Kat­syv, plans were made by the US Depart­ment of Jus­tice to meet him in Hun­gary in Sep­tem­ber 2014. How­ev­er, he did not show up at the meeting.

One month lat­er, in Octo­ber 2014,  it was announced that Pyotr Kat­syv was appoint­ed vice pres­i­dent of Russ­ian Rail­ways, the Russ­ian state com­pa­ny, whose for­mer chair­man Vladimir Yakunin is a close ally of Pres­i­dent Vladimir Putin and sub­ject of US sanc­tions. Pyotr Kat­syv then informed the US Gov­ern­ment that that he want­ed to “nego­ti­ate a set­tle­ment” in the case of his son, Denis Katsyv.

Denis Kat­syv

Denis Katsyv’s com­pa­ny, Pre­ve­zon Hold­ings, is defen­dant in the civ­il for­fei­ture and mon­ey laun­der­ing case brought by the US Depart­ment of Jus­tice in 2013. The US court froze US$14 mil­lion of Pre­ve­zon assets in real estate and bank accounts pend­ing tri­al in this action.

In addi­tion to the US pro­ceed­ing, assets of Denis Kastyv and Pre­ve­zon have been frozen by the Swiss Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor under the crim­i­nal mon­ey laun­der­ing inves­ti­ga­tion con­nect­ed to the same $230 mil­lion fraud uncov­ered by Sergei Mag­nit­sky. In 2005, anoth­er com­pa­ny of Denis Kat­syv, Mar­tash, had 35 mil­lion shekels (U.S. $8 mil­lion) con­fis­cat­ed as part of set­tle­ment of a sep­a­rate mon­ey laun­der­ing inves­ti­ga­tion by the Gov­ern­ment of Israel.

Accord­ing to the US Gov­ern­ment, Katsyv’s com­pa­ny was involved in laun­der­ing into Man­hat­tan real estate pro­ceeds con­nect­ed to the $230 mil­lion crime. The US Gov­ern­ment has traced over US$4.2 mil­lion in false and ques­tion­able wire trans­fers to Pre­ve­zon, described as pay­ments for “bath tubs,” “auto spare parts,” video equip­ment” and oth­er goods, while Pre­ve­zon is a real estate com­pa­ny that has noth­ing to do with man­u­fac­tur­ing or trad­ing goods. Near­ly $2 mil­lion of those trans­fers have been traced by the US Gov­ern­ment to the $230 mil­lion crime in Rus­sia uncov­ered by Sergei Magnitsky.

Accord­ing to court fil­ings, Denis Kat­syv met with FBI Spe­cial Agent Pen­za in Rome on 12 Feb­ru­ary 2014. He was accom­pa­nied to the meet­ing by his Russ­ian attor­ney. The meet­ing, accord­ing to Denis Katsyv’s lawyers, was held at the rec­om­men­da­tion of an unnamed Israeli “con­sul­tant.”

Explain­ing the orig­i­nal meet­ing with FBI, Denis Katsyv’s lawyers said:

“Mr Kat­syv was approached by an Israeli gen­tle­man who rep­re­sent­ed that he was a con­sul­tant in for­fei­ture cas­es and could assist Mr Kat­syv in this case. This indi­vid­ual con­vinced Mr Kat­syv to meet with FBI agents in Rome.”

After the Rome meet­ing, the FBI informed the US Depart­ment of Jus­tice, that Denis Kat­syv and his father, Pyotr Kat­syv, want­ed to meet again “to pro­vide infor­ma­tion about crim­i­nal activ­i­ty in Rus­sia.”

After learn­ing that Kat­syv senior want­ed to “act as an arguable inter­me­di­ary” for Kat­syv junior, the US Depart­ment of Jus­tice ter­mi­nat­ed plans to meet with him.

Born in 1953, Denis Katsyv’s father, Pyotr Kat­syv, has been a long-stand­ing Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cial. For twelve years, dur­ing 2000 – 2012, he served as Min­is­ter of Trans­porta­tion of the Moscow region, while his son’s com­pa­ny was award­ed trans­porta­tion con­tracts from the Moscow region­al bud­get. Dur­ing 2012 – 2013, Pyotr Kat­syv was head of the Moscow Region­al Government’s Depart­ment in charge of rela­tions with fed­er­al gov­ern­ment. In Octo­ber 2014, Pyotr Kat­syv was appoint­ed vice pres­i­dent of Russ­ian Rail­ways. Kat­syv senior is also mem­ber of the devel­op­ment com­mit­tee of the Trans­porta­tion Ministry.

Sergei Mag­nit­sky uncov­ered and tes­ti­fied about the $230 mil­lion fraud in Rus­sia. He was arrest­ed by some of the same Russ­ian offi­cials he had impli­cat­ed in his tes­ti­mo­ny. Sergei Mag­nit­sky was tor­tured and killed in police cus­tody after 358 days in pre-tri­al deten­tion on 16 Novem­ber 2009. In 2012, the US Con­gress passed Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Law Account­abil­i­ty Act impos­ing sanc­tions on those involved in Magnitsky’s ill-treat­ment and death, and their cov­er up.

The tri­al in the USA vs Pre­ve­zon is due to begin on 6 Jan­u­ary 2016. This US action is one in mul­ti­ple facets of the $230 mil­lion fraud, uncov­ered by Sergei Mag­nit­sky. Pro­ceeds from that crime have pre­vi­ous­ly been traced to Swiss banks and real estate in Dubai owned by Russ­ian offi­cials and their relatives.

For more infor­ma­tion please contact: 

Jus­tice for Sergei Magnitsky

+44 207 440 1777

e‑mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org

www.lawandorderinrussia.org

Twit­ter: @KatieFisher__

www.facebook.com/russianuntouchables

Comments

• Link