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

PRESS RELEASE
For Imme­di­ate Distribution

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__

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