US Sanctions Four New Russian Officials on Magnitsky List Including Russian Deputy General Prosecutor Victor Grin

December 30, 2014

Today the US Gov­ern­ment released four new names of Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials added to the U.S. Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions list, includ­ing Russia’s Deputy Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor Vic­tor Grin.

Mr Grin is the high­est-rank­ing mem­ber of the Putin regime to be sanc­tioned to date under the Sergei Mag­nit­sky Rule of Law Account­abil­i­ty Act.

“Vic­tor Grin is sure­ly the most odi­ous char­ac­ter of all Russ­ian offi­cials involved in the Mag­nit­sky case, and it is cru­cial that he is being pub­licly sanc­tioned,” said a Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Сam­paign representative.

The announce­ment came short­ly after the sec­ond of anniver­sary of the pas­sage of the Mag­nit­sky Act and fol­low­ing the fifth anniver­sary of Sergei Magnitsky’s mur­der in Russ­ian police custody.

Two of the four sanc­tioned Russ­ian offi­cials played a spe­cif­ic role in the Mag­nit­sky case, and the oth­er two are offi­cials with respon­si­bil­i­ty in the Chech­nya region.

The most high pro­file new addi­tion to the sanc­tions list is Vic­tor Grin, Russia’s Deputy Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor, who was respon­si­ble for the cov­er-up of the tor­ture and killing of Sergei Mag­nit­sky in police cus­tody, the cov­er-up of the theft of $230 mil­lion from the state that Mag­nit­sky had exposed. He was also respon­si­ble for the posthu­mous pros­e­cu­tion of Sergei Mag­nit­sky three years after his death.

Major Andrei Strizhov, an inves­ti­ga­tor of the Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee, was also added to the Mag­nit­sky list. Last year, Strizhov was respon­si­ble for clos­ing the inves­ti­ga­tion into Sergei Magnitsky’s death with a find­ing of “no signs of a crime.” This find­ing came in spite of two inde­pen­dent reports from Rus­sia and two from abroad that found that Mag­nit­sky was sub­ject­ed to tor­ture, beat­en with rub­ber batons and oth­er abuses.

The U.S. Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions list now con­tains 34 names, includ­ing 28 who played a role in the Mag­nit­sky case.

“It is impor­tant we don’t  for­get that the Mag­nit­sky fam­i­ly has sub­mit­ted evi­dence of more than 280 indi­vid­u­als who should be sub­ject­ed to sanc­tions under the Mag­nit­sky Act. There is a lot more work to be done for the US Gov­ern­ment to ful­fill its oblig­a­tions under the Mag­nit­sky Act,” said a Mag­nit­sky Jus­tice Сam­paign representative.

 The pub­li­ca­tion of the list has coin­cid­ed with the pub­li­ca­tion of the annu­al report by the U.S. State Depart­ment on the imple­men­ta­tion of the Mag­nit­sky law, in which the State Depart­ment has explained the cri­te­ria involved:

“The cri­te­ria include per­sons involved in the crim­i­nal con­spir­a­cy uncov­ered by Sergei Mag­nit­sky, a Russ­ian lawyer who died of med­ical neglect on Novem­ber 16, 2009, after a year in pre-tri­al deten­tion in a Moscow prison, after he uncov­ered a large tax fraud scheme per­pe­trat­ed by Russ­ian officials.”

The Mag­nit­sky Law was passed in Decem­ber 2012. The first Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions list was pub­lished by the U.S. Gov­ern­ment in April 2013. The addi­tions of names to the Mag­nit­sky Sanc­tions List gen­er­al­ly hap­pens in con­junc­tion with the pub­li­ca­tion of the U.S. State Depart­ment report on the imple­men­ta­tion of the Mag­nit­sky Law or in reac­tion to a “con­gres­sion­al trig­ger” in which chair­man and rank­ing mem­bers of cer­tain con­gres­sion­al com­mit­tees can request for names to be added to the list.

Back­ground Infor­ma­tion on Deputy Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor Vic­tor Grin:

 Vic­tor Grin serves as Russia’s Deputy Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor. He over­saw a probe into the com­plaint filed by the Her­mitage Fund’s lawyers report­ing abuse of office by Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials three weeks before the $230 mil­lion was stolen which led to Magnitsky’s death. In spite of receiv­ing the report, Grin failed to con­duct any inves­ti­ga­tion and three weeks lat­er, a group of Russ­ian offi­cials and crim­i­nals stole $230 mil­lion from the Russ­ian treasury.

On 10 April 2009, Grin signed an indict­ment, which exon­er­at­ed all Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry and tax offi­cials that Sergei Mag­nit­sky had exposed in the $230 mil­lion theft.

On 6 Novem­ber 2009, ten days before Sergei Magnitsky’s death in cus­tody, pros­e­cu­tor Grin was assigned to over­see the probe into the com­plaint about Magnitsky’s ill-treat­ment and denial of med­ical care in cus­tody filed by Magnitsky’s col­league Jami­son Fire­stone. Grin failed to con­duct any such probe, and ten days lat­er Sergei Mag­nit­sky was mur­dered in custody.

After Sergei Magnitsky’s death, Grin was put in charge of super­vis­ing the inves­ti­ga­tion into Sergei Magnitsky’s death. In this capac­i­ty, he issued a report find­ing no vio­la­tions in the actions of Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials who arrest­ed and pros­e­cut­ed Mag­nit­sky, which was used to jus­ti­fy the clo­sure of the death case investigation.

Two and half years after Magnitsky’s death, in retal­i­a­tion to calls from the Magnitsky’s fam­i­ly for jus­tice, Grin per­son­al­ly ini­ti­at­ed two posthu­mous cas­es against Sergei Mag­nit­sky in Rus­sia, includ­ing one which end­ed with the first-ever posthu­mous tri­al in Russ­ian his­to­ry last July, and anoth­er one which is still ongoing.

For fur­ther mate­ri­als on Russ­ian Deputy Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor Vic­tor Grin go to “Russ­ian Untouch­ables. Jus­tice for Sergei Mag­nit­sky” web­site and vis­it page “Mag­nit­sky Case Cov­er up Revealed in Per­sons and Doc­u­ments”.

Back­ground Infor­ma­tion on Inves­ti­ga­tor Andrei Strizhov:

The sec­ond Russ­ian offi­cial added to the Mag­nit­sky Sanc­tions List today is Major Andrei Strizhov. Strizhov is an inves­ti­ga­tor work­ing in Russ­ian Inves­tiga­tive Com­mit­tee who was respon­si­ble for clos­ing the inves­ti­ga­tion into Magnitsky’s death. In his report, he found “no crime.” He also has refused requests from the Mag­nit­sky fam­i­ly to allow them to con­duct inde­pen­dent med­ical exam­i­na­tion of Magnitsky’s tis­sue archive or for their lawyer to ques­tion FSB and Inte­ri­or Min­istry offi­cials respon­si­ble for his detention.

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