Russian Investigative Committee Has Formally Exonerated Olga Stepanova, the Tax Official Who Approved the Fraudulent $230 Million Refund Uncovered by Sergei Magnitsky

November 8, 2013

8The Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee has informed U.S. lawyer Jami­son Fire­stone, Sergei Magnitsky’s for­mer law part­ner, that it found no grounds to pros­e­cute Olga Stepano­va, the for­mer head of Moscow Tax Office No 28, and the per­son who approved the major­i­ty of the $230 mil­lion ille­gal tax refund uncov­ered by the late Sergei Mag­nit­sky. The Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee has exon­er­at­ed all oth­er tax offi­cials involved in approv­ing the fraud­u­lent tax refunds which cost Sergei Mag­nit­sky his life for exposing.

“No evi­dence was obtained which is suf­fi­cient to charge O.G. Stepano­va or oth­er per­sons under Arti­cles 286 or 285 of the Russ­ian Crim­i­nal Code [over­step­ping author­i­ty or abuse of author­i­ty],” the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee report­ed in their letter.
The Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee also said that it failed to ques­tion a num­ber of witnesses. 

“The inves­tiga­tive actions that are pos­si­ble with­out an accused, have been com­plet­ed except for a series of ques­tion­ing of wit­ness­es whose where­abouts have not been estab­lished,” said the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee in its letter.

Ear­li­er, the Russ­ian author­i­ties informed Jami­son Fire­stone that they were not able to ques­tion two of Ms Stepanova’s deputies, Ms Olga Tsare­va and Ms Ele­na Anisi­mo­va, because they had left the coun­try. These were the same peo­ple who pur­chased lux­u­ry apart­ments in Dubai, along with Ms Stepanova’s ex hus­band Vladlen Stepanov, short­ly after the approval of the ille­gal $230 mil­lion refund in Decem­ber 2007.

Jami­son Fire­stone filed a com­plaint seek­ing a crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion to be opened into the tax offi­cials, includ­ing head of Moscow Tax Office No 28 Olga Stepano­va, on 15 April 2011, two years and a half ago. In his com­plaint, Mr Fire­stone cit­ed evi­dence of their role in the approval of the fraud­u­lent $230 mil­lion refund, and the use of illic­it pro­ceeds for for­eign real estate pur­chas­es. Dur­ing this time, the Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee has refused to con­duct a prop­er inves­ti­ga­tion, and now informed him that they have effec­tive­ly exon­er­at­ed all the tax offi­cials involved. Ear­li­er, the inves­tiga­tive depart­ment of the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry informed Jami­son Fire­stone that they also found no evi­dence of wrong-doing by the tax offi­cials. Appeals to the Gen­er­al Prosecutor’s Office seek­ing to com­pel a prop­er inves­ti­ga­tion of tax offi­cials in the Mag­nit­sky case have been refused.

“All branch­es of the Russ­ian law enforce­ment with direct super­vi­sion from the Russ­ian Gen­er­al Prosecutor’s Office have exon­er­at­ed the tax offi­cials who were clear­ly involved in one of the largest refund frauds in Russ­ian his­to­ry. This can only be explained that the cov­er up is ordered and approved at the high­est lev­el of the Russ­ian gov­ern­ment,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

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