BBC Russian: Интервью с Уильямом Браудером

October 19, 2009

Консультанты компании Her­mitage Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment направили письма главам министерства финансов, Счетной палаты, Федеральной налоговой службы, Центробанка России, а также правоохранительных и следственных органов страны с просьбой расследовать мошеннические схемы, связанные с хищением из федерального бюджета возвращенных налогов на прибыль на общую сумму 11,2 млрд рублей, в том числе 5,4 млрд рублей, ранее уплаченных компаниями фонда Hermitage.

Таким образом, выходит, глава Her­mitage Уильям Браудер радеет не только за свои, давно утраченные, интересы в России, но и за интересы российского бюджета. Не вовлеченные в эту историю юристы предлагают сначала разобраться в мотивах тех или иных действий Браудера, доказать вину задействованных в этой истории сотрудников правоохранительных органов и налоговых инспекций.

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Ведомости: Распилить за один день

October 19, 2009

Мастер по приему пиломатериалов может отпилить от государственного бюджета 5,4 млрд руб. без помощи налоговиков и милиции, считает российский суд. Фонд Her­mitage, который пострадал в этом деле вместе с государством, исключает такую возможность и провел собственное расследование.

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The Telegraph: Russia jails sawmill foreman for largest ‘tax fraud’ in country’s history

October 19, 2009

Vik­tor Markelov has plead­ed guilty to “fraud by pri­or col­lu­sion by a group of per­sons and in an espe­cial­ly large amount” in a Moscow court, after the case was brought to the author­i­ties’ atten­tion by Her­mitage Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment, the hedge fund bat­tling to expose cor­po­rate cor­rup­tion in Russia.

Accord­ing to the ver­dict, Mr Markelov, 42, “a fore­man for deliv­er­ies of lum­ber from sawmill DOZ-160”, used three for­mer Her­mitage sub­sidiaries to reclaim RUB5.41bn (£106m) of cap­i­tal gains tax­es paid by the hedge fund in a high­ly com­plex fraud. He will serve five years “in a cor­rec­tion­al colony … with no fine”. There is no men­tion of any attempt to recov­er the lost tax­es in the ver­dict or pur­sue oth­er conspirators.

Mr Markelov’s sen­tence was reduced from 10 years after the court took “into con­sid­er­a­tion per­son­al infor­ma­tion”. It omit­ted to men­tion that he had pre­vi­ous­ly been sen­tenced to two-and-a-half years for manslaughter.

Her­mitage, the biggest for­eign investor in the Russ­ian stock mar­ket until 2006, has claimed that the sophis­ti­cat­ed fraud could only have been com­mit­ted with the col­lu­sion of senior fig­ures in the nation’s law enforce­ment agen­cies and tax offices.

Bill Brow­der, the founder of Her­mitage, has stepped up his cam­paign against Russ­ian cor­rup­tion by post­ing his alle­ga­tions on YouTube.

Arti­cle by Philip Aldrick was pub­lished in The Tele­graph.

The Times: Hermitage alleges fraud in high places in Moscow

October 19, 2009

In a let­ter Her­mitage Cap­i­tal accus­es senior gov­ern­ment offi­cials of con­spir­ing with a crim­i­nal gang to steal £235 million.

Fraud­sters oper­at­ing with­in the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry and the Moscow Tax Author­i­ty have stolen 11.2 bil­lion rou­bles (£235 mil­lion) from the state bud­get, accord­ing to a com­plaint filed today with the Accounts Cham­ber of the Russ­ian Federation.

In a let­ter to Sergei Stepashin, the chair­man of the cham­ber and head of Russia’s anti-cor­rup­tion com­mit­tee, Her­mitage Cap­i­tal, a British-based hedge fund man­ag­er that for­mer­ly was the biggest for­eign port­fo­lio investor in Rus­sia, accus­es senior gov­ern­ment offi­cials of con­spir­ing with a pri­vate crim­i­nal gang to steal the money.

Lead­ing offi­cials in the Moscow Tax Author­i­ty cov­ered up crimes involv­ing bil­lions of rou­bles embez­zled from the state bud­get, Her­mitage alleges in its let­ter, which names indi­vid­u­als, accus­es them of cov­er­ing up the fraud­u­lent activ­i­ty and urges the Accounts Cham­ber to investigate.

Evi­dence uncov­ered by Her­mitage, the com­pa­ny stat­ed in its let­ter to Mr Stepashin, point­ed to “an organ­ised crim­i­nal group com­prised of pri­vate indi­vid­u­als and gov­ern­ment offi­cials”. The frauds “would not have been pos­si­ble with­out the direct involve­ment of offi­cials” from the Moscow Tax Author­i­ty, Her­mitage wrote.

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Letter to the Chairman of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation

October 19, 2009

Let­ter to the Chair­man of the Accounts Cham­ber of the Russ­ian Fed­er­a­tion

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