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

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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

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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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