US$14 Million Connected to Proceeds of US$230 Million Fraud Uncovered by Magnitsky Have Been Traced to Canada

October 27, 2016

US$14 Mil­lion Con­nect­ed to Pro­ceeds of US$230 Mil­lion Fraud Uncov­ered by Mag­nit­sky Have Been Traced to Canada

27 Octo­ber 2016 – US$14 Mil­lion of sus­pect­ed illic­it pro­ceeds con­nect­ed to the US$230 mil­lion Russ­ian fraud uncov­ered by Hermitage’s mur­dered Russ­ian lawyer, Sergei Mag­nit­sky, have been traced to Canada.

In a com­plaint filed with the Roy­al Cana­di­an Mount­ed Police and eleven oth­er law enforce­ment agen­cies this week, Hermitage’s lawyer, Lin­coln Cay­lor of Ben­nett Jones LLP, out­lined US$220,000 in pro­ceeds which were trans­ferred to Cana­da from two Cyprus accounts.  These two Cyprus accounts are con­nect­ed to the leader of the Klyuev Orga­nized Crime Group, Dmit­ry Klyuev, who is sanc­tioned under the US Mag­nit­sky Act for his involve­ment in the Mag­nit­sky case. These trans­ac­tions can be traced back to the $230 mil­lion tax rebate fraud uncov­ered by Sergei Mag­nit­sky in 2008.

An addi­tion­al $1.5 mil­lion was wired to Cana­da through a num­ber of dif­fer­ent accounts which can also be traced back to the fraud uncov­ered by Sergei Mag­nit­sky, and a fur­ther US$12.6 mil­lion in sus­pi­cious mon­ey trans­fers were wired from Cana­da back to the mon­ey laun­der­ing net­work used by the Russ­ian fraudsters.

“Based on the present infor­ma­tion, it is clear that Cana­da has a role to play in inves­ti­gat­ing the crime uncov­ered by Sergei Mag­nit­sky,” said Bill Brow­der, leader of the glob­al Mag­nit­sky jus­tice campaign.

The news comes amidst the debate in the Cana­di­an par­lia­ment on the imple­men­ta­tion of Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions leg­is­la­tion in Cana­da, sim­i­lar to that adopt­ed by the US. The Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly of the Organ­i­sa­tion for Coop­er­a­tion and Secu­ri­ty in Europe, of which Cana­da is a mem­ber, also urged mem­ber states to adopt these sanc­tions in a 2012 Mag­nit­sky resolution.

In 2008, Hermitage’s lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky uncov­ered the US$230 mil­lion fraud and tes­ti­fied about the com­plic­i­ty of Russ­ian offi­cials in the fraud. He was false­ly arrest­ed by the Russ­ian Inte­ri­or Min­istry, detained for 358 days with­out tri­al, tor­tured and killed in Russ­ian police cus­tody at the age of 37.

After Magnitsky’s death, Russ­ian author­i­ties posthu­mous­ly accused him of the crime he had uncov­ered and exon­er­at­ed all offi­cials. Hermitage’s glob­al jus­tice cam­paign has iden­ti­fied numer­ous ben­e­fi­cia­ries around the world who received funds laun­dered from the crime uncov­ered by Sergei Magnitsky.

Inves­ti­ga­tions into the laun­der­ing of pro­ceeds of the US$230 mil­lion fraud have been opened in mul­ti­ple coun­tries, includ­ing the USA, France, and Switzerland.

The events of this case are described in the New-York Times best-sell­er, “Red Notice” by William Brow­der, and in a series of cam­paign videos which can be seen on the YouTube chan­nel, “Russ­ian Untouchables.”

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

Jus­tice for Sergei Magnitsky

+44 207 440 1777

e‑mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org

www.lawandorderinrussia.org

billbrowder.com

twitter.com/Billbrowder

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